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THE GREATEST TRUTH 



THE GREATEST TEUTH 

AND OTHER DISCOURSES 
AND INTERPRETATIONS 



BY 



■J* 



HORATIO W/DRESSER 

AUTHOR OF 'THE POWER OF SILENCE' 



PROGRESSIVE LITERATURE CO 

P.O. BOX, 228, M.S. NEW YORK 

1907 

[All rights reserved] 






/«2 /.:■/■,- 
94 



Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 



FOEEWOED 

In the City of God, on a commanding hill 
whence one may look forth over all the 
kingdoms of the universe, there stands the 
church universal. Sometimes, as I have 
wandered down its majestic aisles, it seemed 
to exist for me alone. Therefore, I sought 
a secluded chapel and worshipped in silence 
there. Again, I felt myself to be one of 
myriads who had gathered from all quarters 
of the universe. Anon, the vast throngs 
worshipped in music only — the hearts and 
voices of vast choirs of men and women sang 
glad hymns to their Maker. At other times, 
people from various nations gathered with 
their kinsmen to worship in their mother 
tongue. The wonder of it all was the 
number and variety of those worshipping 



V 



VI THE GREATEST TRUTH 

groups, assembled there in unity of spirit. 
I wandered from group to group and from 
chapel to chapel. As I walked, the walls 
and columns seemed to rise and grow before 
me, so that I found no end ; and interior 
after interior opened in the soft distance. 
If I stepped out into the joyous light of day, 
I still seemed to be within the walls. More- 
over, the whole scene varied from time to 
time, as I reascended the heights to the great 
Church. 

At length I learned that there were no 
outer walls about that Church, that its 
scenes varied as my inner state altered. 
This discovery led to another, that wher- 
ever in all the worlds of God a soul sends 
its thoughts aloft to the Father it enters 
that Church. The various groups I had 
wandered among were worshipping nations, 
assembled in their fatherlands. But, more 
than this, scattered souls, vast distances 
apart, worshipped the unity there — so I 



FOREWORD Vll 

learned. Then I knew that any one could 
there find congenial spirits, however their 
outward circumstances and beliefs might 
differ. To my joy I also understood at last 
how I, too, could minister and be ministered 
unto. The visible church which I had 
sought I need not longer seek. For in that 
vast Church of God I found a chapel where a 
group of fellow-men gladly gathered to listen, 
when I would speak. Hence the discourses 
which follow, some of which I have also 
given in visible churches, here on earth. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

i. Glad Tidings, 



ii. The Greatest Truth, . 

in. C I and My Father are One, 5 

iv. The Law of the Kingdom, 

v. The Temporal and the Spiritual, 

vi. Transfiguration, 
vii. The Meaning of Ideals, . 
viii. Spirituality, .... 

ix. What is Freedom? 

x. Can we Change our Dispositions? 

xi. The Inner Light, 

xii. Faith, 

xiii. The Value of Prayer, 



PAGE 

1 

14 

26 

43 

57 

65 

72 

78 

89 

97 

104 

112 

123 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 



CHAP. 




PAGE 


XIV. 


The Fatherhood of God, 


. 132 


XV. 


A Law of Human Evolution, . 


. 139 


XVI. 


Wisdom, 


. 145 


XVII. 


Harmony, 


. 155 


XVIII. 


Thoughts, 


. 167 


XIX. 


Prejudice, 


. 189 


XX. 


What is the Higher Life? 


. 197 


XXI. 


God is Love, 


. 206 


XXII. 


The Power of Truth, 


. 221 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 
CHAPTEE I 

GLAD TIDINGS 

Oh ! my fellow men, my sisters, and my 
brothers, a great truth has been made known 
unto the world, a truth which concerns you 
one and all. It is a message of joy, a gospel 
of peace and love. It is a word spoken unto 
the heart, it brings power and guidance to the 
soul. Above all it is a life-giving message, 
freighted with that life eternal which sets 
humanity free. Let us meditate for a time 
upon that message that we may gain a new 
impetus for daily living. 

You who are burdened with troubles which 
seem too great to bear. You who are toiling, 
toiling the livelong day, pursuing a dreary 
round which apparently shuts out all hope. 



2 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

To the labourer in the city streets, the house- 
hold drudge on the lonely farm. To the 
oppressed and the oppressor, the rich and the 
poor, society's slave and the social aspirant. 
To you who have tasted the world's boasted 
pleasures and found no joy therein. To the 
hounded sinner and the condemned who know 
no way of escape, who would do good but have 
not learned the way. To the sorrowful and 
the afflicted, to the soul that is famished for 
spiritual food, the truth-seeker and the sceptic. 
To one and all, of whatever creed or clime, of 
whatever race or condition, to those who pray 
for light, and those who love mercy, peace, 
and justice. There is one panacea for all ills, 
one truth which will set you free. Listen, 
then, while I speak to one and to all ; not as 
one having authority, but as one who has 
toiled a little way up the steep slope of the 
mountain of life and beheld a glorious vista 
whose import he would fain share. 

It is the vision of the beauty and wisdom, 
the grandeur and power of God. Oh ! my 
people, know the great truth : God lives. 



GLAD TIDINGS 3 

God is here. This is no mere belief, no con- 
clusion established by argument. God is not 
a far-off substance, not a monarch seated upon 
a throne. Nor is He a wonder-worker, one 
whose ways are not to be depended upon. He 
abides near and within the great universe 
which so marvellously reveals Him. He is a 
being of boundless wisdom and love, of justice, 
peace, and mercy. He knows your ways, 
knows the hearts and minds, apprehends the 
needs of all. He knows your problems, your 
toilsome and your doubting hours, your heart- 
aches and your heart-longings. He knows 
the way out of your darkness and misery. 
Listen to Him for He is nigh. Listen to Him 
for He will guide you. He is light and in Him 
is no darkness. He is love and in Him is no 
hatred. He is peace and in Him is no discord. 
If you would know the truth, if you would 
possess the great joy and find the freedom 
which is true liberty, consider this great fact, 
and see all else in the light of this. Here is 
the way which knows no obstacle, here is the 
resource which never faileth. 



4 THE GKEATEST TRUTH 

Say not that the reality is shut out from 
your sight. Say not that the truth is not for 
you, or that God is partial. The power that 
will change all for you is here to-day. This 
day shall you know that there is one true 
God, who possesseth all things, who guideth 
all things, who will carry all things and 
all peoples forward to peace and joy and 
freedom. 

Oh, my people, I declare the great truth 
yet again : God lives. In this great and 
beautiful universe of ours His life ever 
pulsates. There is no power beyond His. 
There is no opposition, no lesser or wholly 
independent life. All that exists is of and 
from and for God. All that is partakes of 
His life, reveals His ineffable glory. He 
called it into being. He has purpose in it 
all. It is life of His life, substance of His 
substance, heart of His heart. He has loved 
it into being. He is with all beings in love, 
ever sustaining, guiding, uplifting; there is 
nought besides His kingdom. 

When Jesus the Christ walked among men 



GLAD TIDINGS 5 

many centuries ago, this was the sublime 
message He delivered unto the world : ' The 
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand/ In this 
fact all else that He came to declare was in- 
cluded. This was the purport of His summons 
wherever He called men to repentance. This 
was the foundation of His promises alike to 
His hearers and to the unborn generations 
who were to read His words. And this mes- 
sage meant that the Father is ' at hand/ not 
afar, as the Hebrews had been believing of 
their God, Jehovah. It was this declaration, 
' at hand/ which gave His message such 
power. The disciples caught the word and 
transmitted it. Again and again since that 
wondrous time the same message has gone forth. 
It is the word of glad tidings by which those 
who hunger and thirst for the Spirit are every- 
where greeted. The Christ stands for just 
this fact of facts. To those who apprehend 
the significance of Christ's coming, this is the 
central revelation. It is they who truly know 
that the kingdom is literally, truly, fully, ail- 
inclusively ( at hand/ They who hear the 



6 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

news and understand, shall enter into that 
kingdom, there to be fed, there to find peace. 

We are apt to think of the voice of Jesus as 
having spoken long ago. We put the Christ 
far from us, as men had put the heavenly 
kingdom when Jesus came to call them back 
to consciousness of it. Hence the need of 
sending forth again, and ever persistently, that 
thrilling message which throughout the ages 
has so often stirred men's hearts anew. What- 
ever we think, whatever we do, whether we 
doubt or wander from the fold, to those who 
have been stirred by the news, as well as to 
those who have never heard it, the message 
is ever the same: the kingdom is wherever 
you or any one else lives loyally, where you 
and where all men faithfully toil. Only by 
hearing the news afresh, and by bearing it 
to many others, by constant return to the 
Father's house and as constant going forth 
into His vineyard, shall we ever know at last 
the deep significance of that matchless utter- 
ance of Jesus. 

Hear, then, that utterance as it once more 



GLAD TIDINGS 7 

sounds to men's ears. The Christ is here ! 
The Christ is here ! The same beautiful 
presence is among us, the same gentle spirit, 
compassionate heart and helping hand. That 
spirit is not now embodied in one human 
form as of old. Jesus no longer walks among 
men in the flesh. The fleshly life was for a 
season only — yet what a marvellous period 
of light, wherein the true c light of the world ' 
was actually seen. But the fleshly manifesta- 
tion faded only that the greater glory might 
be revealed. From that thrilling voice count- 
less echoes were heard. By that compassion- 
ate heart myriads of lives were quickened. 
These echoes gave back the message, and 
these lives declare the love. The Christ- 
power is drawing all men unto itself, the true 
Comforter has come. There need be no 
other isolated manifestations in the flesh. 
It is the universal revelation that follows its 
particular manifestation. From the great 
centre of life and power, wisdom and love 
have gone forth to all. Thus the many 
declare what once the isolated soul beheld. 



8 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Unless we hear not only the individual 
fleshly message, but its universal confirma- 
tion, we do not understand the complete 
revelation. It is not enough to hear again the 
voice of Jesus from afar, as if to hear were to 
retain, as if to believe were to do. The test 
is to go and do likewise, both to hear and 
declare. The particular revelation may be 
historical and distant, the universal can only 
be present and living. He who can look 
back and behold the Christ, then turn to 
humanity and discover the Christ in process, 
truly knows that the great truth is universal. 

Hence each soul, hearing the voice that 
sounds across the centuries, must turn to the 
great universe about him and consider it as 
Jesus bade all men regard it. The kingdom 
of God is at hand in the rock, in the seed, in 
the plant, the animal and man, in the great 
world-order and in the social cosmos. To 
make any exception is to fail to see what 
Jesus came to declare. It is the universe in 
all its fulness that is the kingdom of God. 
The revelation of Jesus concerning the king- 



GLAD TIDINGS 9 

dom which is ' within ' is doubtless the first 
fact. The soul must be set right before it 
can discern the true world. But the dis- 
covery of the universe at large as surely 
follows. Hence the vital truth without which 
the inner Christ of old means little, namely, 
the truth that God lives, that His total 
kingdom abides, is as fully here as it was 
nineteen centuries ago. It is only by putting 
oneself into a certain attitude towards life 
that one is able to verify the particular revela- 
tion. The revelation once verified, one turns 
rather to the living God of to-day than 
to the mere account of His more meagre 
revelation of old. 

The Christ bespeaks the ideal attitude, the 
true approach to the Father, in all times and 
places. To those who thus approach, the 
Father speaketh freely ; and what shall be 
uttered none knoweth till the inspired voice 
shall utter it. This immediate, personal 
revelation is the one we so often miss, because 
we place undue stress upon the historical 
utterance. Overestimating the mere words 



10 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

spoken of old, we underestimate the power of 
God to-day, we dare not believe He can speak 
to us. To believe in ourselves seems to be 
disloyal to Jesus. Yet only by such belief 
may we apprehend the great principle for 
which His life stood. 

To apprehend the Christ-spirit and carry 
it into daily life means much more than we 
are here saying. But let us for the time 
being simply voice the glad tidings of dis- 
covery. No discovery can equal in scope and 
power the one which stirs the soul when, 
having searched near and far, one turns from 
letter to spirit, from the visible and external 
to the invisible and interior, and exclaims in 
reverent surprise, Behold, God is here ! One 
may picture the listening soul, rapt in the 
attitude of discovery and uttering words like 
these : 

Oh, Spirit of spirits, Soul of souls, Life of 
lives, the Beauty of all that makes beautiful, 
the Love of all who love, the Wisdom of all 
who are wise, I feel Thy glorious presence, I 
know that Thou art nigh. I have long sought 



GLAD TIDINGS 11 

Thee, and now Thou hast revealed Thyself. 
Oh, fill my soul with Thy presence that I 
may help men everywhere to know Thee, to 
know that there is nought without Thee ! Oh, 
the blessedness of life with Thee ! Would 
that men who are far from knowledge of Thee 
could know the joy and peace which now 
have come. Oh, Spirit of spirits eternal ; oh, 
Love of love that dies not ; oh, Beauty that 
never fades ; make known Thy presence that 
all may share the glorious knowledge that 
beyond all that comes and goes, beyond all 
that is visible, Thou dost ever exist. 

Then we may behold the same enraptured 
soul turning from the sacred vision to declare 
it wherever there are willing ears : Of the 
blessed Spirit I sing to you, my people, the 
Spirit mighty and eternal. Sometimes I speak 
as from myself. Again, I turn and address 
the tender Father of all that I am and shall 
be. Then perchance the Spirit speaks better 
than I could speak and ye hear Him the In- 
effable, the Father ever-present and sustain- 
ing. From the eternal solitudes, as well as 



12 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

from the life of busy man, the same message 
comes. It comes in long waves of soothing 
melody. It comes in stirring accents, filled 
with the fire of life. It whispers in gentle 
murmurings, low and sweet. It waves and 
sways and advances. It rests and restores 
the soul. 

Oh, my people, hear ye that voice ! Be 
still in the heaven of silences and listen for 
its rhythmic pulse -beat. Give ear to the 
monotones of the forest and hear it there. 
Feel with the love of the mother and behold 
the Father's tender care. Be strong with the 
strength of the father, and fee! the Mother's 
gentle spirit. Look with the eyes of the poet 
at the beauty of yonder hill. Sing with the 
musician, and hear the undying melodies. 

There is a harmony born of the ages, a 
joy that has been sung since creation's natal 
day. List to its sweet cadences, open wide 
the doors of the soul. 

Do you feel the mighty Power ? Then 
abide by that, live in and for that. Trust all 
to God, leave the future to Him. Be a man 



GLAD TIDINGS 13 

of God to-day. Be a soul. Be true to the 
best you know, and cling to what love and 
peace you have. Carry that love to your 
fellows. Be at peace with the world. 



CHAPTEE II 

THE GREATEST TRUTH 

What is the truth which above all other 
truths shall make men free ? Is it the fact 
that Jesus died on the cross ? Is it a par- 
ticular fact in the life of any individual ? 
Evidently, if it is to free all men, it is a 
universal principle which has always been 
true, unlimited by any historical event. At 
the same time an historical life may bear 
witness above all previous evidences that it 
is true. 

This greatest of truths is inseparably con- 
nected with the entire gospel of Jesus, hence 
with His teaching in regard to the inner life, 
the laws of spiritual growth and service, the 
works He wrought, and the immortality which 
He brought to light. For if we ask the old 
question, What is truth ? the answer which 

14 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 15 

Jesus gives is found to include a wealth of 
facts and laws implying a central principle 
which He uttered first and last : ' God is in 
His universal kingdom, the Father is " at 
hand " ; He is the life of all, and none has 
power, none is good apart from Him/ This 
is without doubt the great truth which Jesus 
came to reveal. It is the peculiar manner 
whereby Jesus made this truth known that 
gives His life its unprecedented significance. 

No truth is more frequently enunciated by 
religious teachers. Yet, just because of its 
familiarity, its fullest significance is generally 
overlooked. Were it really understood, we 
should see the end of all doubt, fear, anxiety, 
despair, warfare, inequality, injustice, and op- 
pression ; and, in due course, the end of all 
suffering. There is every reason, then, why 
we should work in this the richest of all 
mines. At any moment we are likely to 
discover treasures which are new to us all. 

Let us then once more enter the holy 
of holies with reverential feet, with hearts 
of humility, and listening, expectant souls. 



16 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Since it is true that God is all in all, it is 
from the Father that we may expect the 
new revelation of truth which is to illumine 
our pathway. Fortunate shall we be if we 
can so far put self aside to feel His radiant 
presence, receive from His limitless wisdom, 
and partake of His infinite love. We know 
that all truth is for us, all peace, love, and 
joy. It rests with us to be faithful, to fulfil 
the law; then all that we seek shall be given, 
all that we need shall be bountifully supplied. 
It is the Father Himself who will teach us, 
His spirit within the soul which shall lead us 
into all truth. We must, therefore, begin as 
we would end, by seeking the conditions 
wherein all that we have need of has already 
been provided. 

Peace be with us, therefore, that peace 
which words dimly suggest, but which every 
heart may feel. May the simplicity and re- 
ceptivity of true humility characterise every 
moment of our sweet brotherly communion, as 
we reverentially seek more wisdom, more light, 
greater appreciation of this truth of truths. 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 17 

First let us remember that it is the Spirit 
that ' giveth life ' ; the letter by itself is cold 
and dead. There is more truth to be told 
than our lips can utter, more than words can 
even suggest. We must give ear to the over- 
word, poetically appreciate what we cannot 
prosaically comprehend. For it is the real 
life we seek, the food that feeds the soul, not 
merely the knowledge of the law which satis- 
fies the mind. 

There is a word spoken with power which 
becomes flesh, the creative embodiment of 
God's omnipresence. It is spoken first to the 
heart, then it is more slowly apprehended by 
the mind. Later it becomes bone of our bone, 
and flesh of our flesh. Happy are we if we 
so understand the law of its coming that we 
may have patience while the intellectual and 
fleshly gifts are being added to this inmost 
possession of the kingdom of the soul. 

Let us begin our search at the foundation, 

as if all our ideas were new. In deepest 

truth the ideas are new, for they come with 

the re-creating spirit of a new day, they are 

B 



18 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

true for us because true to-day. God must 
be all in all for us to-day if He is all in all 
at any time. It is the revelation of the pre- 
sent moment which is the most dear. It is the 
evidence of His life, even now active within 
us, that is the final proof that God really 
lives. All other proofs are secondary. You 
must first possess God to know Him, and if 
you possess Him you need not prove that He 
exists. It is not so much that man goes 
in search of God to demonstrate that He 
really lives, as that God who possesses man, 
reveals Himself as vitally present. 

God is His own witness. God meets God 
in the soul of man, and knows that He is the 
Father. God looks out through the windows 
of the soul and beholds His wondrous works, 
and sees that they are good. The eyes of 
every human soul are organs of vision for 
God ; through each life He beholds the world 
in a different yet in ever the same light. It 
is just this inexhaustible variety of individual 
experiences which enables the Father fully to 
declare and know Himself. The Father is 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 19 

made perfect as the all in all through the 
infinite diversity of His creatures. Through 
each He achieves a different end, yet through 
all the same end. Life is truly a unit, an 
order, a system, because there is one supreme 
Power, one Wisdom, one Love manifested 
through all. God would be incomplete with- 
out the creature, without a world of activity, 
growth, variety, and achievement. Yet the 
world is only great through Him ; the creature 
is nothing without the Father. 

This is the miracle of miracles, that God is 
all in all ; that all is for His glory, and there 
is no power beyond His. Yet the creature 
lives too, and has a will, passes through an 
experience and wins a triumph as freely and 
fully its own as if no other being existed. 
The creature is of and from God, and it is 
unqualifiedly true that man is nought without 
the Creator. But man is also himself in such 
wise that, while in reality acted upon and sus- 
tained by the Father, he seems to act inde- 
pendently as if for himself. There are, as it 
were, three types of consciousness, the Father 



20 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

working and beholding through the creature 
as part of Himself ; the creature rising to the 
point of communion with the Creator, and 
realising that he is nought without the Father; 
and the creature viewing himself as a separate 
being. It is the intermediate stage which 
most concerns us, where God and man meet, 
where the Father knows the son, and the son 
knows the Father. The Father is there be- 
holding the son's life, and looking through 
his eyes out upon the world. The son is 
conscious that the Father is present; he looks 
on in wonder, love, and praise, thankful be- 
yond all power of words to declare that he is 
aware of the divine presence, that he is privi- 
leged to participate and to know his sublime 
origin. 

It is easy to confuse these types of con- 
sciousness and to speak as if one's awareness 
of the divine presence were the great totality 
of God. Yet comparison of vision with vision, 
and the description given by one seer with the 
account made by another, shows that we know 
in part, just as we live in part, but when that 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 21 

which is perfect is come it is no longer the mere 
human seer — it is the great God beholding, of 
whose transcendent presence not one revelation 
alone is the expression, but all spiritual truth is 
needed. God is the great Self, Being, Keality, 
as revealed in all, as manifested through 
nature, and as known unto Himself. What 
you and I hear from above is but a strain 
among strains, a theme amidst themes, while 
the complete symphony is heard through the 
entirety of eternity by the Father. 

Hence we see the inadequacy of all at-' 
tempts to prove the existence of God by 
arguments from design in nature, and the 
like. For the largest collection of evidences 
which any human being can make is but a 
fragment ; at best, it is but one point of 
view. Even then the essential is not the 
argument, but the quickening spirit which 
inspired it. The fundamental fact is the 
presence, that sustaining life of which the 
soul was conscious while aware that it was 
not itself alone but also the Father. If we 
have had the quickening experience we see 



22 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

value in the evidence ; otherwise it is merely 
a collection of empty words. There is a light 
which lighteth every man coming into the 
world. If one is aware of the light, one can 
follow any line of inquiry, and behold the 
word becoming flesh. 

An argument from the flesh leads but a 
little beyond the flesh. An argument in 
psychological terms may still be decidedly 
human. As there is more in man than the 
flesh and the feelings, thoughts and desires, 
with which we so often identify ourselves, we 
must start with the soul which beholds and 
uses these. The soul is already a son of 
God, and the soul must teach concerning the 
Father of the soul. 

What is the confession of the soul in its 
moments of keenest insight ? What is the 
cardinal fact of our distinctively human life ? 
The prophets of this great truth which we are 
considering assure us that it is the sense of 
self in contrast with the more than self, the 
painfully finite in the presence of the joyfully 
infinite aspects of our selfhood. Let us dwell 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 23 

for a moment on this contrast, the sense of 
man's smallness in the presence of the glory 
and grandeur of God. 

There are many stages in the evolution of 
self-consciousness. First, we awaken to the 
fact that there is a self within us, apart from 
the self of father, mother, friend. There is a 
naive awareness that an ■ I ' exists. But the 
tendency is to identify this self with the 
body, or with a particular part of the body, 
such as the head. The discovery of desires, 
of a will, and the power of action, and of 
sufferings arising from actions, leads to a larger 
consciousness of self as mental and moral. 
An enormously large realm opens with man's 
intellectual quickening. Desires multiply and 
vast plans are developed for the enlargement 
of self and its powers. The sense of self en- 
larges without limit till man becomes con- 
scious that he is environed by a law-girt 
order, a natural and spiritual universe which 
persistently says to him, ' Thus far shalt thou 
go and no farther.' 

It is thus the sense of limitation which 



24 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

brings the great truth home to man, the 
discovery that even his most private con- 
sciousness is beset by obstacles and tempta- 
tions which he cannot surmount by himself 
alone. Meanwhile there has been growing 
within him a moral sentiment, a religious 
consciousness, which more and more persist- 
ently makes him aware of a better amidst a 
worse, a something that is above and greater. 
Thus the contrast between man's 'nothing 
perfect ' and God's ' all complete ' is borne in 
upon him with tremendous force. Here, on 
the one hand, is a part which wants to be 
something in and for itself. It is wilful, and 
insists on being wilful. It constantly rebels 
because it finds itself in a universe where 
selfishness is thwarted. Side by side with it 
is a sentiment which points far beyond. It 
indicates the way out of temptation. It 
desires nothing for itself, all is for humanity 
and the Father. All is for love. It says 
unto the personal self, 'All that you would 
be is vain, if sought for self alone. Thou 
canst be nothing of thyself. Truth and love 



THE GREATEST TRUTH 25 

are not won by separateness. It is the sense of 
separateness which alienates man from all that 
he most truly longs for. Thou art nothing 
apart from God, literally nothing, nothing/ 

This is a hard saying, and reason at once 
asks, ' How can it be that there is but one 
power ? Have we not found evidence of two 
powers in the age-long conflict of the lower 
and higher within us, temptation and con- 
science, selfishness and the tendency which 
makes for righteousness ? ' Yes, but that is 
only a partial truth. The deeper truth 
remains behind, the great fact which I have 
emphasised in the foregoing. 



CHAPTEE III 

' I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE ' 

One of the hardest sayings of those who are 
most devoted to the Christian life is the 
statement that man is nought of himself, and 
can do nothing by himself. It is said that 
we must reach this point before we are fit to 
be Christians. The natural man, in all the 
fulness of enthusiasm for individual life, 
would rather believe the contrary. Such a 
man would readily admit that there is truth 
in the saying when applied to some people. 
Yet when reference is made to men of genius, 
the saying is indeed hard. And He who above 
all others seemed to be great in His own 
right was most emphatic in uttering this 
principle. In John v. 19, Jesus says : ' Verily ? 
verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing 
of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.' 



<I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE ' 27 

Both in Mark and in Matthew, Jesus almost 
rebukingly asks, ' Why callest thou Me good ? 
there is none good but one, that is God.' What 
is the meaning of this surprising declaration ? 
Jesus makes a fuller statement (John v. 
30) when He says, ' I can of Mine own self 
do nothing : as I hear, I judge : and My 
judgment is just ; because I seek not Mine 
own will, but the will of My Father which 
hath sent Me. If I bear witness of Myself, 
My witness is not true/ In many passages 
Jesus declares that He is true to the will of 
the Father, that all His works are what the 
Father has bidden Him do. 'I live by the 
Father' (John vi. 57). He said to Pilate 
(John xix. 11), l Thou couldst have no 
power at all against Me except it were 
given thee from above.' Evidently the mean- 
ing of all these passages is that there is but 
one power, and that is God's. There is no 
room to doubt that Jesus means the state- 
ment literally, namely, that even He, ' the Son 
of Man,' can ' do nothing ' without the Father, 
is ' not good ' without the Father. But it is 



28 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

no less true that with the Father Jesus is 
good, is a mighty power, so that He can say 
with unqualified conviction, ' I and niy Father 
are one.' 

Now there are those who take this passage 
to mean that Jesus and the Father are one 
and the same person, and others who reject 
the Gospel from which these sayings are 
taken as altogether mystical. But there is 
scarcely a passage in the Gospels which would 
not be sadly marred, if Jesus and the Father 
were to be absolutely identified, and this mere 
oneness taken as their clue. In the earliest 
of the Gospels (Mark i. 35) as well as in the 
latest, it is reported that Jesus prayed to the 
Father in a very human sort of way. He felt 
the need of going apart from the throng, 
sometimes on a mountain-top. The prayer to 
the Father in the garden is an expression of 
human agony. He sought if possible to avoid 
the agony, and even cried out as if forsaken. 
In Mark x. 6, Jesus speaks of God as 
' Creator/ He confesses His inability to 
grant the privilege of sitting on His right 



'I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE' 29 

hand (Mark x. 40). He admits other limita- 
tions when He says, c But of that day and 
that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the 
Father ' (Mark xiii. 32). Jesus gave thanks 
unto the Father, and frequently acknow- 
ledged the wisdom of the Father's all-wise 
insight. 

Yet it is noticeable that Jesus acknow- 
ledges that He is the Christ, as freely as He 
admits the limitations of His human self, the 
man Jesus. What is the essence of Christi- 
anity, then, as Jesus taught and lived it ? 
Is it the becoming as nothing ? No, this is 
only the first stage, the negative side. It is 
the fact that each time an opportunity is pre- 
sented to Him to win power or to do that 
which benefits the merely personal self, He 
does that which is for the Father, for all 
humanity. It is unselfishness, devotion, ser- 
vice, love. 

There are three stages in this great process. 
(1) First, the discovery that ' There is no 
power but of God : the powers that be are 



30 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

ordained of God' (Romans xiii. 1). This 
discovery includes the momentary realisation 
that of oneself one is and can do nothing. 
But even at this point we have the assurance 
that ' when I am weak then I am strong/ 
(2) Then we have the passing of the human 
into the divine, the temptations, and the 
wonderful triumphs over them in which the 
soul cries out to that which is below, ' Get 
thee behind Me, satan ' ; and to that which is 
above, ' Not My will but Thine be done/ (3) 
Finally, we have the crowning stage in which 
the soul can say in all sincerity, ' I and My 
Father are one.' But how can there be but 
one power ? One might answer by asking, 
What other power can there be ? Nature, 
do you say ? But what is nature if it be not 
the life of God in visible action ? Nature is 
good, beautiful, serviceable, but not without 
the goodness which it manifests and which is 
achieved through it ; not without the revela- 
tion which makes its beauty known, not 
without the beings that enjoy its uses. 

Do you insist, then, that man has power of 



'I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE 31 

himself ? Let us examine this proposition for 
a moment. Physically, man is part of nature, 
and entirely dependent on nature. As social 
beings, men are dependent on one another, 
but nature is their bond of external union ; 
and whence comes that life which all men 
share if not from the same Source which 
nature manifests ? Is man free to err, do 
you say, free to sin ? But how can there 
be freedom of will apart from the moral 
cosmos where the standards of right and 
wrong obtain ? To what end is he free ? 
That he may do anything he likes ? Eather 
say, He is free in order that he may become 
a completely moral being through his own 
experience. But he is free to think, he has 
independent powers of thought, you finally 
insist. But how can the mind think without 
the data furnished it from nature and the 
social life of man ? The very dawn of con- 
sciousness is lost in the relationships of our 
social life. Nor can you, as a last resort, 
fall back on a belief in the soul as possessing 
independent power. We know nothing of 



32 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

the soul except through what it does, and 
every moment of its consciousness is a sharing 
of objective life. In your dreariest moments 
of self-consciousness you are never alone. 
You cannot find a spot so solitary in your 
heart that God is not there. The most selfish 
plan that was ever devised has somewhat of 
the divine in it. The devil — who is he, 
except man's own regenerate or ignorant self, 
temporarily using the same power which the 
angels use ? 

The one power that is discovered to be 
universal in this first great stage is, then, the 
life of nature, of humanity, and the spiritual 
world which environs us in the unseen. That 
life is all, there is no other. Everything is 
done either for or against that. Its attributes 
are wisdom, love, goodness ; it is omnipresent, 
and in its measureless kingdom all beings 
1 live and move and have their being.' To 
know that there is but one power is to know 
that the universe is good, that it is an order, 
a system wherein all things work together for 
the realisation of one great purpose. Hence 



' I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE' 33 

it is literally true that ' None of us liveth 
unto himself. Whether we live, therefore, or 
die, we are the Lord's.' 

Yet the beauty and the wonder of it is 
that there is both the son and the Father. 
' I and the Father are one/ that is, one in 
spirit, one in will. ' I do that which is well- 
pleasing/ The oneness is harmony, adjust- 
ment ; it is a oneness for the sake of service, 
of mutual work; it is that return to the 
sources of things which reveals their tendency, 
system, order, the recognition both of the 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
man. From the Christian point of view it is 
the solution of all our problems, the way out 
of all difficulties. For Christianity assures us 
that all our trouble comes from trying to be 
something of ourselves. The discovery that 
we are nothing and can do nothing is at the 
same time the discovery that we are of great 
consequence and can accomplish marvellous 
results, that is, if we press through to the end 
to see the meaning of this great truth, c I and 
my Father are one.' 

c 



! 



34 THE GREATEST TRUTH 



It has been customary to dwell on the 
negative side, the renunciation. ( We must 
submit to the will of God/ it has been said. 
But what is God ? Consider the question 
thoughtfully, What is God ? Jesus calls 
Him the Father, who so loves His children 
that He has provided for every want, who 
knows our needs even before we ask Him. 
There is not a recorded saying of Jesus which 
suggests aught except the utmost tenderness 
as attributable to the Father. God is not a 
harsh ruler before whom every one must bow 
in utter abjection. Jesus bids men approach 
the Father as one who is ever ready, who 
watcheth over all the world with unfailing 
love. We are to retire to ' the secret place/ 
the silence of the heart, and there enter into 
oneness with that which is for us. Eecep- 
tivity is the word, willingness, not submission. 
We are not compelled to enter that secret 
inner world. We may continue to seek our 
own ends if we choose. But when we learn 
that ' no man liveth unto himself/ then the 
way is open to live for God, for all humanity. 



'I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE' 35 

There is nothing to give up, there is every- 
thing to gain. No man can be made a son 
of God ; we are that already. The discovery 
that we are nothing of ourselves does not 
change the ultimate facts. It brings the soul 
into consciousness of that which is eternally 
true. It is the truth which above all other 
truths sets us free. It is good news, the 
gospel, the atonement, the way of salvation. 

The will of God, therefore, is that which 
expresses His love and wisdom. It is the 
centralising power which gives unity to the 
whole life-process. Embodied as purpose, it 
is the one great end ' toward which all 
creation moves.' Again, it is the specific 
purpose in the life of each of us which makes 
for individuality, originality, the expression 
of the highest ideal. The will of God thus 
has a personal relation to each man. It is 
the will of God that each should be a man in 
the full sense of the word. It is His will 
that we should grow, develop, accomplish. 
But it is also His will that we should love 
one another, that we should be at peace. By 



36 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

this sign especially shall we know that men 
really know that they and the Father are one, 
for the brotherhood of man is the logical 
consequence of this discovery. Furthermore, 
it is God's will that we should know the 
truth, that we should be upright, just, true. 
It is God's will that we should be healthy, 
sound, sweet, and pure; that we should be 
social, that we should live a richly active 
life. Thus the will of God is multiform, and 
it calls for multiform adjustments. It is 
not adequate knowledge of our oneness with 
Him merely to learn His will in a few 
respects. We must know that His power is 
working through us in every phase of our 
lives, to round us into fulness of being. 

What meaning have these great truths as 
applied to your life and mine ? Suppose you 
are in distress, in sorrow or suffering, and see 
no way of escape. It seems to have no bear- 
ing on your case to tell you that you and the 
Father are one. But consider the depth of 
meaning in this sublime fact. What is the 
power which you are using ? What is it that 



'I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE ' 37 

is active in you ? Why are you in unrest ? 
Do you realise that God is one with your life, 
even in the flesh as well as in the world of 
thought ? ' Know ye not that your bodies 
are the temple of the Holy Spirit ? ' 

In our narrowness of thought, we are apt 
to think of the will of God as applying 
to the moral world simply, or to something 
vaguely set apart as ' spiritual.' But what 
is the spiritual ? What is it to be one with 
God if not to see the spiritual in everything? 
To know your physical life as it truly is, is 
to see that, too, as a part of God's will. God's 
will in the flesh makes for health, soundness, 
strength, beauty. When you feel the pangs 
of pain, after meeting with an injury in the 
flesh, the restorative powers of nature are at 
work there seeking to bring your organism 
back to harmony. To be one with God in 
that respect is to see the divine will expressed 
in that renewing activity. To oppose or 
fight the painful sensation as something 
foreign is to put yourself to that extent out 
of harmony with the Divine Will. To rise 



38 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

above the sense of pain to realisation of the 
power, the will, the love, behind it, is to put 
yourself into that attitude where you can in 
that respect say, ' I and my Father are one/ 

It is a marvellously fruitful thought— this 
recognition of our oneness with God. Ordin- 
arily we think of it in a vague, mystical 
sense, and therefore lose its real meaning. 
To know it in detail is truly to know what 
it means, to put it to the test, even now, the 
next time you have an ailment, a trouble or 
a conflict. There is one great resource — ' I 
and my Father are one/ What does this 
mean for you, here and now ? In your heart 
of hearts, you desire that which your Father 
desires for you, hence there is no conflict. 
God's home is eternity. You as an immortal 
soul dwell in eternity. In that eternal world 
— ( the city of God ' — there is continuity of 
life; even death is an external incident 
simply. The soul is even now a son of God, 
it is saved now ; it was never lost, it never 
will be lost. You can be separated from the 
Father in thought, in theory, but not in reality. 



' I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE ' 39 

Here, then, is the starting-point — the eter- 
nal oneness of the soul with God. Go back 
to that, then see what this fact means in 
relation to your present problem. It seems 
difficult to establish a connection between 
this high realm of thought and the fact of 
sorrow and suffering and conflict. But that 
is because we make a separation between the 
natural and the spiritual, because we do not 
know for a fact that the will of God is univer- 
sal. We must overcome this sense of separate- 
ness before we can know the depth of truth in 
the great law which we are now considering. 

To be one with God is to be in heaven. 
Heaven is peace, rest. Therefore enter into 
that peace and rest in full trust and confi- 
dence. Eealise it, declare it — ' I and my 
Father are one.' Then recognise that truth 
in detail. According to the law which Jesus 
enunciates, everything has been provided for. 
That is the first step. Many people believe 
that who dare not take the next step. If you 
believe that everything has been provided, 
that the will of God is literally universal in 



40 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

its care, then trust all, ' dare all, nor be afraid/ 
There is where the test comes. For that 
means giving up for the moment that which 
seems more sure. It is a venture. And 
here is where we so often fail. We are not 
quite ready to believe, we doubt, we distrust. 
But note the clear-cut character of the law 
as Jesus sets it forth. 'No man can serve 
two masters/ If any man would enjoy the 
benefits of the Kingdom, let him take up his 
particular problem into the realm of oneness 
with God, and follow the Christ: let him 
leave all for the Christ. ' He that loveth 
father or mother more than me is not worthy 
of me (Matthew x. 37) ; yet he who is will- 
ing to make the test will find that he loves 
father or mother more. ' Take no thought 
for the morrow/ Trust that what you should 
say will be told you when you should say it. 
Do not even turn back to bury the past, leave 
that to bury itself. Seek not things first, but 
the Spirit. No one knows the hour of 
coming but the Father. He that doeth the 
will shall know the way, , he who not only 



'I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE' 41 

hears the precepts but practises the sayings. 
There are many occasions when a solution of 
our difficulties seems impossible. ' With men 
it is impossible, but not with God ; for with 
God all things are possible' (Mark x. 27). 
1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as 
Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but 
abideth forever' (Psalms cxxv. 1). 

Now we know what Jesus meant by say- 
ing, ' Whosoever will come after me, let him 
deny himself and take up his cross and follow 
me ' (Mark viii. 34). To deny oneself is to 
bring one's will into line with the Divine 
Will. Again it is clear why ' If any man 
desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, 
and servant of all ' (Mark x. 14). The ' way, 
the truth, and the life,' the pathway of the 
Christ, is to take one's entire being up into 
the mount of unity with the Spirit, then to 
follow wherever the Spirit leads. First, 
cleanse yourself, be reconciled with those who 
are near at hand, then shall you see clearly 
what lies beyond. ' A good man out of the 
treasure of the heart bringeth forth good 



42 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

things/ but he must first find the pure 
' heart/ The will of God has meaning for 
all, therefore each must find the will for 
himself. The Christ is universal, but each 
must be a Christ-soul to make this actually 
true in the objective world. 

This is the great meaning for you and me. 
It has been thought sufficient that Jesus lived 
and suffered nineteen hundred years ago. 
But Jesus was the one who dared to make 
the venture, to show that he really meant 
and knew that ' I and the Father are one.' 
He exemplified the attitude in regard to the 
situation of his day. The test of belief in 
him is to adopt the same attitude towards the 
smallest as well as the greatest circumstances 
of our own life. There is no universal for- 
mula which may be applied to all cases, with 
the hope that form shall take the place of 
spirit. There is a general law, but we prove 
it only by seeing it as a particular law. For 
each individual is unique; therefore each 
must learn in a special sense that ' I and my 
Father are one/ 



CHAPTER IV 

THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 

In another discourse we studied the Gospel 
message as summed up in the great truth 
that God lives, that the Father is in His 
Kingdom, close at hand. We turn now to 
another way of approach to this greatest of 
truths. 

There is a way of looking at the life of 
Jesus which dwells upon the miraculous in it. 
This amounts to a disordered notion, since 
miracle is usually synonymous with inter- 
ruption of law, at least such laws as we know. 
The entire ministry of Jesus is thus supposed 
to be a sort of intrusion into the ordinary 
course of things. Miracles were possible for 
a season, but now their day is past. There 
was a dispensation of prophets, but prophets 
come no more. A divine revelation was 

43 



44 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

made, but other literature than the Christian 
Bible is ' profane.' Thus the whole day and 
generation of such things was for a time, and 
the time is ' fulfilled/ 

On the other hand, there is a point of view 
which dwells upon the congruity of the whole 
Gospel narrative with the history of the 
world. Even nature prophesied the coming 
of Christ. All nations were ' feeling after 
him.' The life of the ancient Hebrews was 
a long period of special preparation. The 
Old Testament gives evidence that the Messiah 
is to come. The entire mission of Jesus was 
a part of the cosmic life. Hence everything 
that has entered into Christian history since 
the time of Jesus has united his remarkable 
life with the life of the world. 

If we turn from these contrasted points of 
view to the teaching of Jesus himself, we 
find him making many utterances which ac- 
cord rather with the latter view. Jesus refers 
to the teaching of the prophets as pointing 
forward to his day. He accepts John the 
Baptist as a genuine forerunner. He con- 



THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 45 

stantly reveals foresight concerning his own 
immediate future, and tells what shall come 
ere the day of righteousness dawn in its ful- 
ness. Some have thought that Jesus meant 
an immediate coming of a visible kingdom of 
glory on earth, and that he was a disappointed 
prophet. But in all these references he seems 
to have in mind the general law of spiritual 
regeneration. So well does he understand 
the nature of man, and the conditions to be 
met within and without, that he foresees a 
long period of conflict and of gradual leaven- 
ing. His insight into the far, far future is 
as keen and true as his intimations of what 
is to befall him when the day of crucifixion 
shall be at hand. 

Again, it is one of the most impressive 
facts of his ministry that Jesus seeks so per- 
sistently to make known the general law of 
the Christian life while he is yet with those 
who are at least, in a slight degree, prepared to 
hear. He performs good works wherever he 
goes. He is ever ready to speak the com- 
forting word, meet the needs of those at hand. 



46 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

The works he accomplishes among the sick 
and the distressed are among the leading 
evidences that he is really the Messiah. 
Without these many would not have believed. 
Yet in a sense the works are incidental. He 
explains the law of service as clearly as 
possible to his disciples who, at best, are only 
in a measure prepared to hear. He sends his 
chosen disciples forth to preach the Gospel 
and to heal, and again he sends seventy forth. 
Doubtless he made many explanations to his 
followers of which we have not the slightest 
record, explanations which would throw light 
for us on the few words which have been 
preserved. But we can infer that these teach- 
ings made clear ' the way, the truth, and the 
life/ not merely as pertaining to the particular 
history of Jesus but in reference to universal 
laws. Jesus was eager to have the great 
fact understood that, as the Kingdom is ' at 
hand,' every human soul is a dweller therein, 
and that as a son of God each could be guided 
in his work for that Kingdom, each could 
perform mighty works. 



THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 47 

How else can we understand the great 
promise that those who are faithful shall do 
the same works, and even more remarkable 
things ? What significance would his teach- 
ings have for the race if his promises were 
for that day and generation simply ? Could 
he have been mistaken when he taught his 
followers not only how to pray but how to 
live ? Ought we not rather to say that what 
he inculcated was universal ? 

Note, for instance, the implication of the 
declaration concerning prayer. All things 
have been provided by the Father ; man has 
but to enter into that which is his own. 
Then Jesus goes on to point out the foolish- 
ness of distrust. Such trust as the birds 
display ought to be the least that a man 
should be satisfied to display. Why should 
one be anxious ? What reason in the world 
is there for doubt ? Do we not live in the 
universe of God ? Is not the universe the 
work of the Father's hands ? The labour of 
to-day ought then to be enough for to-day. 
When to-morrow comes we shall know what 



48 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

stands next. Why do we need to know 
to-day ? If we truly desire the Kingdom 
above all else, we have no wish to intrude 
our personal preferences ; what we will is 
what the Father wills for us. Nothing coula 
be clearer. 

Jesus believed in the fitness of things in 
the divine order. His first public utterance, 
according to Mark, was, ' The time is ful- 
filled.' He did not wish to be declared the 
Christ until the proper season. He asked 
his disciples not to make known certain 
events and sayings till he was risen from the 
dead (Mark ix. 9.) He slips away from his 
pursuers a number of times. Yet, ' when the 
hour is come ' he is ready even to be betrayed 
and crucified (Mark xiv. 41.) The implica- 
tion is that he regards the entire experience 
as part of the divine plan. The illustrations 
he draws to make clear that plan are taken 
fi;om the everyday phenomena of growth 
round about him, the law of natural evolu- 
tion. Again and again he assures his 
hearers that the law of action and reaction 



THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 49 

is inexorable, so that no man shall escape 
till the last farthing be paid. It is the 
measure with which we mete which deter- 
mines the reward. But how beneficent is 
that law, decreed as it is by the love of God. 
It is everywhere the law of justice. No man 
would rebel if he really understood the law. 
To apprehend it is to know that there is no 
other. ' If God be for us, who can be against 
us?' 

Jesus also recognises the value of all that 
went before. He is no iconoclast, no anarchist, 
but a believer in order. What went before 
was good in its place. What has now come 
fulfils it. Sometimes Jesus makes it known 
more emphatically than at others, that he may 
rouse his hearers and critics to its vital 
truth. He displays power which seems 
miraculous to the onlooker who beholds only 
the surfaces of things. But his constant 
references to the inner life show that he 
did not judge life by the appearance. If the 
divine order is really universal, it does not 
apply to this life alone. The invisible world 

D 



50 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

of the soul's more abundant life with the 
Father is more truly a revelation of the 
divine order. The ' son of man ' came from 
that larger environing realm into the world 
of visible things to make known the true law 
of the Kingdom. By him who hath the 
eyes to behold the invisible is seen as well 
as the visible. All is clear to one who 
possesses the clue, and the clue to that which 
is spiritual is the spirit in man. The in- 
visible Kingdom is continuous with this. 
The will of God applies to both visible and 
invisible. Hence Jesus can look forward and 
tell what he will do anew ' in the kingdom 
of God ' (Mark xiv. 25.) Hence Paul declares 
that we know that ' all things work together 
for good to them that love God, to them who 
are called according to His purpose ' (Eomans 
viii. 28). The purpose applies not alone to 
the distant end but to each step along the 
way. The Father has not only provided, but 
He watches us by the way. While we 
slumber and sleep, behold the Father sleepeth 
not. Many incidents by the way may seem 



THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 51 

to prophesy failure. Sometimes our adver- 
saries may seem unconquerable. But in 
deepest truth the Spirit knoweth no adver- 
sary. Not even the most distant day shall 
reveal a single exception to the law. 

It was said of a certain man who lived 
the spiritual life, ' He of all men I ever 
knew really believed in the existence of God/ 
Why could this be said, in the face of the 
fact that so many profess belief in the 
Father? Because that man showed by his 
conduct that he literally, sincerely believed. 
He did not make a profession of faith, then 
show distrust by the next thing he did. He 
held that since God really lives and has pro- 
vided all things, it is our part to give the 
Father time to fulfil His own purposes in His 
own good time. I knew that man, too, and 
his life was characterised by humility and 
gentleness. His heart was as tender as a 
woman's, his was a life of service, of readi- 
ness to respond whenever he could aid a 
soul in need. Believing as he did that 
everything ' works together for good ' in the 



52 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

fitness of time, he would sometimes express 
surprise if even the street- car he needed failed 
to be there when he came out of the house 
to make a short journey, so accustomed was 
he to find every detail in adjustment at the 
proper time. Consequently, he would some- 
times question, when one of the details was 
lacking, whether it was c best ' to go. Such 
questionings naturally arise far along the way 
of the spiritual life, for it requires much 
familiarity with the conditions to know when 
one is moving with the Spirit. 

It is plain that there is no way fully to 
know the law of the Kingdom except through 
the details of personal experience. Many 
people fail to consider even in a theoretical 
way what it means to have faith in God, for 
they do not pass beyond the stage of mere 
generality, whereas genuine faith is a matter 
of little details. But there are many more 
who are as yet unaware that there is an 
actual movement, rhythm, within their ex- 
perience of which they may become conscious 
and to which they may become adjusted. 



THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 53 

Yet this is what they have a right to expect 
if they are to take seriously the declaration 
of Jesus that everything has been provided 
and that it is merely necessary to seek in 
order to find. The chief distinguishing 
feature of those who really live by faith in 
God is this, that they have not only im- 
plicitly believed in the existence of such a 
rhythm of guidances but have actually sought 
and found it. There is no possession they 
would more gladly share with their fellows 
than the knowledge of this law, the reality of 
this experience. But the way of the spiritual 
life is such that no one can communicate the 
entire reality. To possess the realities of 
faith one must first have faith, and to have 
faith means to make a venture amidst more 
or less uncertainty. To many it seems too 
much to believe that God has provided every- 
thing in such wise that each detail will 
develop in the fulness of time. Accordingly 
they do not make the venture. Others are 
willing timidly to make test of the possibility. 
Still others are ready to say, Come what may, 



54 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

I believe. To say this and then to act upon 
it may be to encounter doubt and to wander 
far from the way. But just this occasional 
deviation is essential to the final discovery of 
the way. 

The first step, then, is reflectively to con- 
sider what is implied in the promises of Christ. 
Whatever doubts may arise amidst this 
philosophising, the next step is to make the 
venture, seek ' the way, the truth, and the 
life/ No soul ever cried out for light upon 
that way and turned away in utter darkness. 
All that followed the cry may indeed have 
seemed darkness, but it was not so in reality ; 
for the cry was heard. It is part and parcel 
of the law of the Kingdom that the prayer 
shall be answered not in our own way and at 
the time when we insist that light must come, 
but in the Spirit's time and way. Always 
there is a sense in which the Spirit c bloweth 
where it listeth/ There are conditions which 
we should not expect to control, which we 
must take on trust. The very essence of faith 
is the willingness to accept the law and the 






THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM 55 

conditions of faith's fulfilment. The doubt 
along the way, the experimental discovery of 
the rhythms of guidance, is essential to the 
reality which each must win individually in 
order to know that the law is universal. 

It is extremely difficult for those who are 
accustomed to plan their lives so that they 
may know in advance precisely where they 
are to be on a given day, where the needed 
money is coming from, and so on, to depart 
from this sense of security and take up the 
cross of faith. To live by faith implies a 
willingness to be in a state of relative un- 
certainty, a readiness to give up anything 
and everything if so be that the Spirit wills. 
And yet, when all has been said, the change 
is really from uncertainty to certainty. For 
nothing is quite certain in this mundane 
world. The only real certainty comes to us 
when we begin to live for the realities which 
change not nor are separated from us, whate'er 
betide. To discover and enter into the eternal 
rhythm is to realise the enormous instability 
of the appearances of things. One begins to 



56 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

attain repose at last. One knows that what- 
ever comes all will be well with that which 
is dearest. No calamity can take from us 
the possessions of the Spirit. No prison, not 
even death itself, can separate us from the 
friends whose souls we really know. No 
experience can come that is not in line with 
the creative purposes of the Spirit. No trial 
will be put before us which we will be unable 
to meet. For now, at last, it is not merely a 
question of a struggling soul moving on 
amidst the darkness ; for ' I and my Father 
are one/ 



CHAPTER V 

THE TEMPORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 

' For the invisible things of him from the 
creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made, even 
his eternal power and Godhead/ — Romans 
i. 20. 

This statement by St. Paul of the funda- 
mental relation between the unseen and the 
visible, the eternal and the temporal, broadly 
regarded, is one of the most important passages 
in the Bible, since it may be understood as an 
outline of an entire philosophy of the spiritual 
world. Nothing could be more explicit. The 
eternal world is not said to be a region by 
itself, apart from the world of time and space. 
Nor is the visible world merely a realm of 
appearances sundered from true reality. It 
is not even correct to say that the visible 

57 



58 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

world simply reveals that which its present 
condition shows it to be. It is literally true 
that the primal purpose of things, from the 
dawn of creation until now, is clearly made 
known. The world of things is not an illu- 
sion ; it is a genuine revelation of the life of 
the Spirit in all ages. It is perfectly sound 
reasoning to start with the presented world 
and think directly from the visible to the 
invisible, from the temporal to the eternal. 
There is no reason for separation, there is no 
ground for agnosticism. On the contrary there 
is an unimpeachable basis for rational faith. 

The test question, however, is this : Are we 
reading the visible language of the Spirit 
aright? For if the temporal reveals the 
eternal, and that which is made shows why 
it was made, the world of things can be under- 
stood only when it is regarded from the point 
of view of its universal life. The world 
system is a unity because it is grounded in 
the eternal being of God. Your natural life 
becomes a unity for you in so far as you see 
its relation to the spiritual ends achieved 



THE TEMPORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 59 

through it. If, then, you would know the 
true character and value of any phase of your 
present experience, you must find in it a 
revelation of the Father, ' even his eternal 
power and Godhead.' 

In these practical days, when so many are 
saying anew that ' the Kingdom is at hand/ 
a new emphasis is being put upon this great 
truth, and man is adopting a new attitude 
toward the conflicts of social evolution. For 
the old conception of life as a collection of 
warring forces, good and evil at strife, never 
quite loses its hold upon us until we are able 
to bring the facts of pain and evil into line 
and regard all activities as either lower or 
higher forces in one experience. There must 
be a sense of harmony, an insight into the 
unity of the whole, as well as an actual feeling 
of oneness with the world. When the old 
antagonism ceases, when all hatred is over- 
come and all fear departs, one begins to 
recognise this ideal of unity as a living power. 
There may be many unsolved problems. There 
is surely as much reason for moral zeal. But 



60 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

the whole aspect of things is changed when 
the conception of unity passes into an actual 
reality. It is not necessary to know the 
meaning of every fact. There is a certain 
readiness to await developments, a new senti- 
ment of worship, a new tolerance, a deepened 
love. For the power of solving the problems 
of our social conflicts is active in just those 
conflicts. Never shall we see their meaning 
unless we discern it in the visible as an earnest 
of the invisible. The whole reality is here 
before us working itself out. The world of 
immediate experience is a mystery to us only 
because we have not yet seen how wealthy 
just that experience is. 

The issue is this: Shall we take chief 
account of the visible, transient phase of life, 
the human friction, suffering, strife and defeat, 
or shall we base our thinking on the divine 
fact, the power of the Spirit immanent in us, 
active whether we know it or not, and 
achieving its own eternal purposes? When 
the matter is put in this way the mind 
exclaims : How great the thought that we are 



THE TEMPORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 61 

members of an unseen spiritual order, that it 
is God who is ultimately responsible, and we 
should trust in, work with Him ! The whole 
conception of the spiritual unity of life appeals 
to the mind with such force that one resolves 
to live by it for evermore ; it seems impossible 
ever to forget again that ' in Him we live and 
move and have our being.' 

Yet, how easy it is to forget, to sink into 
the visible and disregard the invisible ! It is 
only by repeatedly forgetting and coming back 
to this central thought that we at last begin 
to make it a reality. And just here we have 
an illustration of the great truth in question. 
Even in our forgetting, in our doubts, we are 
working out the great truth. A doubting 
time comes, for instance. Nothing goes well. 
One wonders what to do, what is coming next. 
Life for the moment seems burdensome. One 
feels the responsibility of it all, and wishes 
that some revelation would make plain what 
it is all about. Then it occurs to the doubter 
that just this revelation is being made every 
moment. And hence he exclaims, 'Why, I 



62 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

am not regulating my life. There is One who 
lives in me who knows what this present 
experience means. It is not my plan ; I am 
only one member of a larger life ; all members 
of that life belong in a very profound sense 
to a Being who dwells within all and works 
for all.' 

If you ask, How shall one live with cognis- 
ance of this great truth ? the reply is that 
no plans are needed other than those which 
the present experience reveals. Do what is 
at hand, regarding it as a part of the unseen 
purpose, the eternal order of things. No 
worry is called for : the Power within all 
things is competent. There is nothing to 
fear, for there is no adversary save our own 
doubts and misuse of the gifts of life. All 
men are included in the forward march of 
things. Eest, then, in the present. See the 
beauty of life as it passes. 

This kind of life is founded on something 
deeper than ' poise ' as that word is ordinarily 
understood. For poise may be poise in self 
only. Such poise may easily be lost. The 



THE TEMPORAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 63 

true basis is trust, founded on philosophical 
thinking about this great fact which St. Paul 
so clearly states. 

Try the c hypothesis/ then, if it is nothing 
more to you. Start with the statement that, 
however much individuals may differ, however 
much social separateness there is in the world, 
ultimately there is one Being in whom we all 
live. Then consider how we are all related 
within that Being, so that there can be, is, no 
real separateness. Separateness is due to the 
notion that we are of consequence in and by 
ourselves. To lose the sense of separateness 
does not mean the sacrifice of individuality. 
It means that never again shall we try to 
understand or master ourselves simply as 
isolated units. We are related units. We 
have a common universe. We share in a 
general forward movement of life. 

Even if our thinking verges on pantheism 
for a time there will be no loss in the end, for 
we shall grow into a deeper sense of unity. 
The practical precept of many pantheists is 
this : One ought not to injure another, for that 



64 THE GREATEST TEUTH 

would be injuring oneself. In a profound 
sense this is true, for we are so closely related 
that we cannot injure another without injuring 
ourself. Hence, one must cease injuring and 
hating, one must do good and love, whether 
pne would be happy and harmonious oneself 
or would make others happy and harmonious. 
Pantheism pushed to the extreme runs over 
into individualism, and the thought emerges 
with the conclusion that to see all things in 
the light of their relation to the unseen, 
eternal order is the true way to know them. 



CHAPTEE VI 

TRANSFIGURATION 

Of the many Scripture passages which one 
quotes in time of need, few have greater 
significance than this: 'And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' 
This great saying may of course be inter- 
preted in a number of ways. In the present 
case I shall take it as representative of the 
power of the Christ within. To many people 
life seems a constant conflict between forces, 
some of which tend to uplift, others to draw 
the soul down into the meshes of sensation. 
The great need is some central power by the 
aid of which life may be made a unity. It 
is this great consciousness of the Christ within 
which supplies the needed principle. 

According to a less enlightened method of 
thought and conduct it was customary to con- 
E 



66 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

demn part of man's nature as ' evil ' ; hence 
the conflict was intensified. The other 
extreme is to declare, unqualifiedly, 'All is 
good ; there is no evil.' But enlightened 
thought always discriminates. It is neither 
a question of partial goodness and partial 
evil, on the one hand, nor of mere good- 
ness in general on the other, but of the 
fitness of tendencies and powers in their 
proper place. To see the significance of our 
instincts and impulses, and to co-operate in 
thought and conduct with their immanent 
divine life is to be in a position where there 
is no longer any reason either for repression 
or for condemnation. Moreover, we are learn- 
ing in these days that the various forces are 
transmutable into one another. As applied 
to the human organism, this great thought of 
transmutation resolves itself into a question 
of the • object which is to be put before the 
mind in connection with each of the leading 
instincts or promptings. 

A simple illustration of the principle of 
transmutation is the substitution of the love 



TRANSFIGURATION 67 

motive for the temptation to manifest anger. 
When one's passions are stirred and tend to 
express themselves in violent reaction of some 
sort, if one pauses to inhibit this unseemly 
impulse and put another object before the 
mind, the same power which would have 
been misspent in violence may be distributed 
into numerous peaceful expressions of love. 
The transfer of interest to another centre 
means that a corresponding physical change 
has occurred. To carry out this principle in 
its completeness means complete mastery over 
the dualities of the inner life. It is a ques- 
tion in the first place of intelligent discrimina- 
tion between the various promptings to action, 
that all may be guided according to wisdom. 
The second need is for sufficient self-control 
to carry out the ideals of wisdom. 

Otherwise stated, it is a question of organi- 
sation. Here, within, is a mass c/l more or 
less conflicting powers. Like all lawless 
powers, these forces within us are likely to 
make havoc, to instigate riots. But the 
powers are not in themselves lawless, for 



68 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

each has its proper place. The fault lies with 
us, in the way of a principle of organisation 
and another to find a sufficiently noble source 
of inspiration. Oftentimes we are in the 
position of Paul, who complained that he 
would do good, but found a warring principle 
within his members. The great trouble with 
most of us is that we do not know what 
course to pursue when unusual temptations 
and conflicts arise. At such times it is the 
greatest help in the world to know that there 
is a Spirit at hand which is equal to any and 
every occasion. If one cannot master the 
situation in any other way, it is very helpful 
simply to say over to oneself 'And I, if f\ 
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me/ To turn, while so saying, and look 
above in aspiration is to put the soul in the 
attitude of victory. There is great power in the 
spirit we feel when we meet these contrasted 
forces. The mind must be organised, must 
know the relationships of the activities at 
work within the body. To be deeply stirred, 
for example, is a good thing, but the question 






TKANSFIGUKATION 6 9 

is, How is it wise to be stirred, how shall one 
express one's more impassioned sentiments ? 
Shall so-called righteous indignation, for 
example, be expressed in a merely conven- 
tional way, or is there a wiser way ? What- 
ever the decision, it is plain that the life that 
stirs within us must have some outlet. It is 
for the man who is stirred to decide whether 
his forces shall play havoc or make for peace. 
The answer given will depend upon the 
degree of organisation attained. 

But it is one point to see the need when 
thus lifting the eyes aloft to that which one 
can barely see, but which one knows to be a 
reality. What is needed is a source of help 
which shall establish a balance of power on 
the idealistic side, and this source is always 
above — that is, the Christ within is thought 
of as the power which ever leads on to ulti- 
mate victory. One looks towards it in in- 
spiration, and by so doing changes the centre 
of activity within mind and body in such 
wise that transmutation is possible. The 
whole mass of forces active within is elevated, 



70 THE GKEATEST TRUTH 

as it were, to a higher level. One does not 
need to know all that is in process. It is 
not necessary to co-operate in thought with 
all the details of transmutation. The essential 
is to attach one's consciousness to the higher 
object and to maintain it there. In so far as 
receptivity is attained the face is literally 
transfigured, illumined. When the light thus 
shines upon the countenance the whole being 
is touched. 

Clearly, the principle as thus stated is not 
merely a personal matter. To become centred 
in self is a relatively inferior method. There 
is positive need of a higher power. The soul 
is ready to acknowledge its own incapacity. 
For the moment it seems to be a serious 
question whether the warring forces or the 
ideal powers shall triumph. One's composure 
is tested to the utmost. One's faith is barely 
strong enough to withstand the strain. But 
to turn from the scene of struggle to the ideal 
picture of the Christ is to have the whole 
situation transformed. It comes over the 
mind with new conviction that the Christ is 



TRANSFIGURATION 7 1 

literally present in the world, lifting it up 
from its state of earthiness. Nothing will 
prevent the soul from entering into the up- 
ward tendencies except unwillingness to admit 
a power that is higher than the merely indi- 
vidual self. The individual self is, if you 
please, striving to become the Christ. But 
there is a power in the attitude of humility 
above suggested which far transcends * the 
attitude of mere self-affirmation. ' And I, if 
I be lifted up.' It is a question of being 
drawn heavenward by that which is above. 
The higher and lower, in the ordinary sense 
of the word, are already present. There is 
need of a third something which shall har- 
monise the contrasted array of forces. And 
nothing more deeply unifies us than this 
great power descending into us to weld to- 
gether for Christ's sake all that we are and 
all that we would be. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MEANING OF IDEALS 

One of the most inspiring facts in human 
life is the power of ideals. Amidst the most 
adverse circumstances, where all things ex- 
ternal point away from the life that is called 
ideal, the renewing belief in a better and a 
best ever and again makes itself known. In 
an age where there is more or less decay of 
faith in spiritual things, it is especially im- 
pressive to find a little company of people 
assembled to refresh their consciousness of 
the everlasting realities of religion. 

This idealising power shows the tremendous 
hold upon man which the spiritual conscious- 
ness possesses. It is by this constant renew- 
ing process that we at last mount to the skies 
and conquer the wellnigh invincible. Even 
if our words be again and again the same, 

72 



THE MEANING OF IDEALS 73 

there is an added power each time we look 
upwards : for it is the spirit in which we 
renew the ideal, not the symbol in which we 
clothe it, which gives it power. 

These occasional moments wherein we 
have glimpses of the ineffable suggest that 
there is far more in man than our ordinary 
consciousness implies. The ideal which we 
would be shows by contrast more truly what 
we are. We ought then to take account of 
these highest moments in estimating the 
reality and worth of life. 

Man has vainly tried to understand him- 
self by study of his lower self. He has been 
weighed down by the fact of evil, and has 
looked at the darkness so closely that he 
could not see the light. The lower nature is 
ever a mystery if looked at alone. It is not 
to be understood by itself, any more than one 
can understand nature alone. Nature is a 
part of the manifested life of Spirit and is 
unintelligible apart from Spirit. The physical 
life of man likewise reveals his soul and is 
not to be comprehended by itself. Pain, 



74 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

sorrow, struggle, the merely personal self, 
even the social organism — all these are parts 
of the whole. Only the point of view of the 
whole is capable of revealing to us the mean- 
ing of its parts. The lower is only compre- 
hensible in the light of the higher to which 
it is contributory. 

Man has been mystified by the contrast 
and struggle between what he has called 
good and evil. Thus he has been perplexed 
by dualism, conflict. He has emphasised the 
fact of struggle, sin, conflict. He has con- 
demned God for making such a universe, 
condemned humanity, underestimated himself. 

But when he begins to see that it is not 
the way life is constituted, but the way he 
takes it, that is consequential, he learns that 
the prime fault lay in his theorising. He 
mistook himself for a being of flesh and blood 
when he was and is a living soul, an immortal 
spirit. He saw conflict where there was in 
reality profound adjustment of means to ends. 
In deepest truth, there is unity. Lower and 
higher are simply diverse phases of expression 



THE MEANING OF IDEALS 75 

of one Life. There is nothing inherently or 
incurably evil in man. God has not planted 
anything vile in human nature. All parts of 
man's being are good, in proper relation and 
proportion. Man must be beautiful, must 
see the artistic relation of all that is in him, 
in order truly to understand. 

It is the beautiful relation of all things in 
their unity, seen in the light of the whole, 
which reveals the true worth of life. We 
must not only refrain from judging by the 
appearance ; we should not judge by the 
temporary or partial. We do not yet know 
our full selves. We should remember the 
idealising power and its profound significance. 
Everything that we pass through on the lower 
rounds of life has significance for the higher. 
We must learn to take the mountain-top 
vision. 

Many times when we are weighed down 
by discouragement, we are judging by some- 
thing that is so close to us that we do not 
behold it in true perspective. Oftentimes it 
is physical sensation which discolours our 



76 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

mood. Again it is the disagreeable frictions 
of growth by which we are so absorbed for 
the time that we forget the beauty and virtue 
that are coming out of that process. We 
condemn ourselves a thousand times when 
it is not the real self at all that we are con- 
demning. The real self is hidden for the 
time, and we have forgotten what manner of 
being we are. It is a great discovery, this 
sublime fact that the ideal expresses the truer 
self. 

Whence springs this ever-renewing life ? 
Is it from man alone? Those who believe 
that the immanent Life is the source of all 
change and growth, tell us that it is the per- 
ennial manifestation of the Spirit. It is the 
Spirit, not man, that is doing it all. We are 
not living to ourselves alone. Life is in the 
profoundest sense a unit, because all things 
are means to ends in the divine order. All 
spring from one source ; there is no other 
source of power ; there is no evil power. 
There is a constant going forth of the creative 
life, ever mounting the scale of evolution. 



THE MEANING OF IDEALS 77 

There is a divine pulse-beat, a progressive 
influx. This is the origin of these impressive 
renewals of the religious consciousness. That 
influx makes for good, for health, harmony, 
joy, beauty, individuality, service, love. 
Everything in man is contributory ; there is 
nothing that can defeat the divine tendency 
towards perfection. The ideal is a dim inti- 
mation of what God would have us be. To- 
morrow we shall see the same ideal more 
clearly, and thus ever on and up. 

The progressive influx has an immediate 
relation to each soul. There is a rhythm for 
each, a wise pace which the soul may learn to 
take. All else may be discarded except this 
divine leading ; all anxiety, all care, all merely 
personal sense of ownership or responsibility. 
As we are not living to ourselves alone, we 
are living for humanity, for God. We may 
well take the pace of the life that flows from 
God, towards the ideal. 



CHAPTEE VIII 

SPIRITUALITY 

The word ' spiritual ' is of such uncertain signi- 
ficance that one must first define it, and show 
what is not meant when one uses it, as well 
as what one chooses to have it mean. If we 
observe people who are said to be spiritual we 
find a great variety of opinions and customs. 
It is surprising to find how different are the 
likes and dislikes, the methods and terms of 
those who claim to be seeking the spiritual 
life. Again, it is interesting to find so many 
people of diverse beliefs insisting on just their 
way as the only true method. Thus the 
extremes vary from the hermit, the ascetic 
and the mystic, on the one hand, to the self- 
denying social worker, the aesthetic devotee, 
and the thinker who seeks to make a science 
of spirituality, on the other. It will be worth 

78 



SPIRITUALITY 79 

our while to consider some of these types 
of belief and conduct before we turn to the 
more positive characteristics of the spiritual 
life. 

There is apt to be a certain narrowness in 
the life of those who make special profession 
of the spiritual life. It is unnecessary to 
look as far back as the ascetic of the Middle 
Ages to find narrowness. Nor is it necessary 
in our Western world to prove the one- 
sidedness of asceticism. That experiment 
has been given up once for all. In our day 
this narrowness has assumed new forms. 
For example, some insist so rigidly on the 
coming of all things from within — the finding 
of the Kingdom of God in a particular way — 
that they will not lift a finger to co-operate 
externally. They seem to think that the 
things which are to be added will gravitate to 
them by a kind of mechanical process. Yet 
all the while they are shutting God out by 
condemning part of His word as ' external/ 
For example, such people are frequently heard 
to speak in a high-strung voice, full of 



80 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

nervous tension. Suggest to them that it 
would be well to lower the voice, and you 
will be told, ' That is of the external.' But 
who gave man his voice ? What more direct 
way is there, sometimes, of entering into the 
kingdom of peace than to lower the voice and 
speak in gentle tones ? Others object to 
physical exercise, because that is ' doing things 
with the body.' But what is the body if it 
be not ' the temple of the Holy Spirit ' ? 

I was once impressed by the comment of 
an energetic woman on the doctrines of a little 
paper devoted to a particular type of spirit- 
uality ; ' Why, it leaves one so little to do ! ' 
The criticism was perfectly just. To that 
woman it would have been a backward step 
to lead so limited a life. The spiritual life is 
rich, it takes nothing from our activities, it 
adds to them. Consequently one is justified 
in turning aside from these narrowing modes 
of life. 

Others declare that the spiritual life par- 
takes of the 'impersonal/ But this word 
conceals many illusions. Those who declare 



SPIRITUALITY 81 

themselves ' impersonal ' are usually the most 
personal of mortals. Penetrate behind the 
illusion and you will find dogmatism, egotism, 
pride. It is because people want things to go 
their way that they claim to be c impersonal/ 
I have yet to find a person who made this 
claim who was not in reality ' throwing dust 
in the eyes/ as the French say. The man 
who is honest with himself knows that persons 
constitute the world. It is personal desires 
which prompt us, it is for personal reasons 
that we claim to be disinterested. Or, it is 
mere theory, borrowed from the Orient, for 
example, when we are told that the mother 
should love all children as she loves her own, 
that her children ought to show no preference 
for her. These are the ideas of people who 
subordinate family life and trample on the 
sacred ties of love. Nothing could be further 
from the spiritual ideal than this. 

Far from this position is the noble ideal 
that true love deepens one's love for humanity. 
When the mother loves rightly, she loves all 
children, too ; but only on condition that she 

F 



82 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

love hers first and in a special sense. That 
would be a strange child who should not 
show preference for those who have bestowed 
tender care upon it. To this tenderness a 
large social sentiment is in due time added. 
Thus the universal is added to the particular, 
but it does not absorb it. Be untrue at home, 
and your universality shall count for nought. 
Be truly a person and you may help man- 
kind to attain freedom. There is nothing 
nobler than to be a person. One who is truly 
such is an agent of justice ; he is fair, im- 
partial. But to be a large-minded lover of 
truth and of your fellow-men is to be very 
far beyond that stage which has been 
denominated ' impersonal.' 

Again the spiritual realm has been thought 
of as afar from man and from the world. 
Spirituality has been for Sundays, or for 
' saints. 5 This idea of separateness has done 
more than most any other notion to raise a 
barrier between God and man. Only when 
we consider the entire universe, both large 
and small, as a revelation of the Holy Spirit, 






SPIRITUALITY 83 

are we in the right state to be truly spiritual. 
Each moment we live is a spiritual moment. 
Each hour may be made sacred by remember- 
ing how that hour came to be. Indeed, to 
become spiritual is precisely this : To show 
by our conduct that we believe that the 
universe is one, that there is one God, one 
supreme law. When we live in fragments we 
are not yet spiritual ; we are materialistic 
or selfish. The Spirit unites. Hence the 
very heart of Spirit is love ; hence it is that 
love is regarded as the supreme test. 

Aristocracy is another of these negative 
signs whereby people show that their spirit- 
uality is not quite genuine. ' We are the 
chosen people ' ; others happen to be bar- 
barians, heathen or infidels. On the other 
hand, the truly spiritual man is democratic. 
He recognises that every man is a son of 
God. There are no barbarians in the realm 
of the soul. Every person has faith, some- 
where in his heart. If ignorant of his son- 
ship, he needs our brotherly sympathy and 
help. As a son of God, he has a perfect 



84 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

right to worship in his own way. The 
superiority of his critics is a sure sign that 
their hearts have not yet been touched. The 
greatness of our Master is most of all evident 
in those touching incidents where he welcomes 
the sinful into the Kingdom, where he 
associates with those people whom some of 
his modern followers (in word, not in spirit) 
would deem unfit to share their society. 

Nor is the spiritual life mere submissive- 
ness. Humility and receptivity are points 
along the way rather than goals of the spiritual 
life. The spiritual individual must become as 
a child, but he is alsa a man ; and the active 
individuality of our Western world may 
become as true a servant of God as the self- 
abnegation of the East. Devotion is the 
positive word, not self-denial. 

What, then, are some of the positive 
characteristics of the spiritual life? From 
what has already been said we see that broad- 
mindedness is prominent. The spiritual man 
is tolerant. He is conservative of the faith, he 
keeps the great ideal ever in view, and will 



SPIRITUALITY 85 

not allow himself to be turned aside. Yet 
just because he believes in the universality of 
the Kingdom, he knows that many pathways 
lead to the same summit. The conditions are 
secondary ; the hind of life manifested under 
these conditions is the test. One man may 
seem to another to be an atheist, yet his critic 
may be compelled to confess that the one he 
condemns lives an exemplary life. As a 
matter of fact, some of the most pious men in 
all the ages have been scornfully condemned 
as atheists. Narrow indeed are our theological 
standards, but how broad is the life wherewith 
men truly show that they believe in the 
heavenly Father ! 

Again, we note that the Kingdom of God 
is far from being confined to the inner life. 
Yonder saint in his library chooses to serve 
God by tirelessly searching for truth. Another 
worships the Father through an elaborate 
ritual, with incense and symbolism. But, as 
a Eoman Catholic once remarked, such 'ex- 
ternals ' are only external to him who does 
not put the spirit into them. The person who 



86 THE GKEATEST TRUTH 

gives exquisite care to all the details of 
external life is often classified as ' not yet 
quickened' by one who emphasises the inner 
life, and who perhaps permits everything 
about his home to fall into ruin. But all our 
idols are not made of wood or stone. If one 
man is inwardly unquickened, another may be 
outwardly as undeveloped. It is not for the 
apostle of the inner life to cast the first stone. 

The spiritual is both objective and sub- 
jective. It is many-sided, beautiful, universal. 
It includes both individuality and brother- 
hood. It pertains now to the contemplative 
life and now to the life of service. Some- 
times it is ' good works ' which most truly 
make it known, but again it is the quiet life 
of which the world sees and hears nothing. 
It does not have much to say about itself. 
The most spiritual people are not those who 
call themselves so. Spirituality is shown by 
the life, and you must be sure that you really 
know a man's life, for temperaments differ 
enormously. 

Again, it is made known by a kindly spirit. 



SPIRITUALITY 87 

There is more genuine spirituality exhibited 
in a quiet little home where peace and love 
prevail than in many a church and seminary. 
Plain human life is much more acceptable 
than the self-conscious activities of those who 
set up as guides to all that is occult and 
unseen. It is easy to lecture about the next 
world and about reincarnation. It is easy to 
live a single life amidst a group of admirers. 
But the real test is apt to be home life. If 
one is kind and gentle there, one's doctrines 
have real worth. Hence it is the little deeds 
and words that tell. It is the gentleness 
amidst much that tends to provoke its 
opposite, the beauty which triumphs over 
ugliness. 

Spirituality is also generous, liberal. It is 
not bargain-driving, nor is it economical to 
the last farthing. To try to buy everything 
for the least possible sum is to narrow the 
soul. Generosity invites beneficence, and 
liberality brings provision for its further 
existence. 

It is needless, perhaps, to add that spirit- 



88 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

uality is unselfishness. But one must surely 
declare that it is gladness, for long-faced 
people would fain persuade themselves that 
they have found it. It is practical, moderate, 
refined, noble, pure. It is for this world, and 
no circumstance is too mean to make it im- 
possible of attainment. It does not condemn 
the present life as a c dream/ nor indulge in 
the false generalisation that ' our senses deceive 
us.' For the natural life is the spiritual, seen 
from another point of view. It is not our 
senses that deceive us, for they are true and 
God-given ; it is thought that deceives, and 
no thought is more erroneous than the con- 
clusion that spirituality cannot be intellect- 
ually and naturally known. True spirituality 
is universal ; it excludes no faculty in man. 
Hence we must penetrate the errors and 
negations which have obscured the spiritual 
life, and regard it in the pure, clear light of 
illumined intellect. 



CHAPTER IX 

WHAT IS FREEDOM ? 

Freedom is one of the great watchwords in 
all sects and in all departments of thinking. 
But it is apt to become a sort of idol as 
soulless as a man of straw. There are plenty 
of enslaved people who exult over their 
freedom, while oftentimes religious devotees 
are so f free 5 that there is nothing left in their 
creed but f pale negations.' As matter of fact, 
freedom easily passes either into its opposite 
or into license. It demands much thought to 
discover what true freedom really is, and even 
then it proves to be a decidedly relative term. 
It is doubtful if any one ever attains freedom 
by making it a mere end in itself, so elusive 
is this subtle principle which people talk so 
glibly about. For usually when people make 
a specialty of freedom they devote themselves 



90 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

to changing their physical conditions. But 
first of all it is an affair of the inner life. It 
is not to be bought by giving away your 
material conditions, nor by deserting your 
friends or your wife. Travel abroad to get 
free from yourself, and lo and behold ! that 
same self will pursue you like a fiend. 

In the first place, then, freedom is pro- 
gressively attained, and no devotee of it can 
outwit the laws of evolution. It begins with 
the awakening of the powers of the understand- 
ing, with illuminating self-conscious thought. 
There is first a timid recognition that I, too, am 
of some account, and then a more courageous 
expression of individuality. Conflict with 
the conventions of society soon follows, re- 
ligious dogmas are thrown off, tradition is 
cast aside and idols begin to fall. A period 
follows when one looks with pity on those 
who are still creed-bound. But pride soon 
has its fall, and a new sphere of bondages 
is discovered. The social atmosphere which 
has been broken through proves to be thin 
indeed when compared with the darkness in 



WHAT IS FKEEDOM? 91 

which personal and family ties are obscured. 
Sometimes it is those who love or appear to 
love us most who hold us most rigidly. It 
is not easy to keep the influential friend, yet 
overcome his undesirable influence. It is hard 
to cast oneself out of the family nest and fly 
with entire freedom. Oftentimes one must 
fly to extreme limits in order to return home 
and live normally. Then comes the contest 
with the personalities which one has reared 
into ' tin gods/ At times love turns almost 
into hate while the freeing process is going 
on, for ' the ties that bind ? are often connected 
with that which is most undeveloped in the 
one who holds the power. 

Then there are favourite teachers and books. 
Many people go through the whole of life 
shifting from authority to authority, not 
knowing that he alone is free who owns 
no authority save God, truth and the right, 
as made known to his own soul. To obtain 
a glimpse of this individual authority may 
be to overestimate it, hence to set oneself 
up as a law-breaker. But freedom does not 



92 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

mean rulership over others. The freest man 
is still obedient to the laws of his land, his 
life abounds in exacting adjustments. But 
he it is who knows how to be free in spirit 
though physically in bondage to a world with 
whose laws he had nothing to do. 

After a man begins to be free from par- 
ticular environments and authoritative people 
he must still contend with varying mental 
atmospheres. We are one and all strongly 
tempted to be and think and act like our 
fellows. There is a subtle mental imitative- 
ness that is almost past finding out. Some 
people never feel free before an audience. 
Those who are strong in some social environ- 
ments capitulate in others. The ideal is to 
be everywhere and always the same person, 
to stand up valiantly and give one's message, 
whether the hearers be princes or paupers. 
Yet even this must be qualified. For a man 
must be free from his own creeds and habits, 
ready to follow wherever a freer spirit may 
lead. To dare to be inconsistent is indeed to 
be a candidate for freedom. Few are willing 



WHAT IS FREEDOM? 93 

to go so far as this. Hence they know very 
little what freedom is. 

But freedom is not for self alone. It is as 
hard to grant freedom as to obtain it. If we 
bind another we imprison ourselves. To set 
free is to be set free. When we really begin 
to be free we shall no longer fear lest others 
trample on our freedom. It is a false sense 
of individuality which leads us continually to 
be on the defensive. When you once fully 
understand an imprisoning influence, and learn 
its point of contact in yourself, you are free 
for all time. It is only error that fights. 
Truth has nothing to fear. 

The progressive mastering of our fears is 
almost synonymous with our evolution into 
freedom. From youth to old age the majority 
of us are slaves to fear, and there are fears 
enough to last even if we conquer one a day. 
Some fears haunt the mind like spectres for 
years and years. How few can say in veriest 
truth : I have nothing to fear ! 

The basis of freedom is a constructive faith 
on which we can stand implicitly. He who 



94 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

knows what trust in God means is free. 
Hence freedom is in the profoundest sense 
adjustment to the divine order of things. 
Those who seek freedom for themselves by 
building up a nice little individualism create 
a new form of servitude from which they must 
some time become free. Freedom is not self- 
assertion. If we would really be free we 
must be free from self, too. Beneath all the 
diversity of doctrine this is the great truth 
underlying many theories of human life. 
Some theorists talk about c Karma/ some 
about sin, heaven, and hell. But, whatever 
the term, all agree that something pursues 
us wherever we go, in this world or the next. 
From this ' something ' that survives all ex- 
ternal and all bodily change, only the soul 
that bears it can set us free. When all is 
narrowed down to the last analysis, the bond- 
age of self is found to be the real bond. 

Freedom is not, then, a matter of condi- 
tions ; it pertains to the self, its conditions 
and laws of consciousness. In so far as 
we know the self, we master it. Hence it 



WHAT IS FREEDOM? 95 

is not to be fought or cast out. True wisdom 
turns slavery into liberty. The same con- 
dition enslaves or frees, according to the way 
we take it. In the same way the self makes 
for bondage or freedom according as we use 
it. Freedom comes to us as rapidly as we 
wisely transmute the lower nature into the 
higher. It is thus the silent forces of the 
Spirit which set us free. Free in spirit, it 
makes less and less difference to us how we 
are materially conditioned. We are ready to 
receive the developments of life as they come. 
We meet each event with freedom if we un- 
derstand its law and its significance. 

Yet while we become freer in spirit we 
no longer care to break off personal and 
natural relations. In deepest truth we are 
ready for the first time to be truly a friend, 
a husband or a wife when we are spiritually 
free. For we are no longer trying to manage 
our friends, nor are we subject to their man- 
agement. To be free is not to be f impersonal ' 
but to be a true person, one who is strong in 
individuality, yet equally strong as a friend 



96 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

to all humanity. One loves people all the 
more, but as equal souls, among whom one 
counts for one only. It is a mark of true 
greatness when another meets us as an equal, 
when there is free 'give and take,' although 
the other is far wiser than we. Thus true 
freedom pertains to the highest spiritual life. 
It is akin to gentleness, peace, and love. It 
comes in fullest measure to those who have 
felt the touch of the divine presence, who 
have been ' born from above.' The truth 
which ' makes free : is in the last analysis 
the most profoundly spiritual truth. Thus 
the many stages of progressively attained 
freedom finally culminate in the freedom 
of the soul through knowledge of its true 
nature as a son of God. This freedom comes 
not when we are consciously seeking it as an 
individual possession. It is the spontaneous 
accompaniment or result of the highest life of 
service for our fellow-men. 



CHAPTER X 

CAN WE CHANGE OUK DISPOSITIONS ? 

The remark is frequently made that we must 
take ourselves as we are ; it is useless to try 
to change one's disposition. Let us examine 
this statement to see how much truth there 
is in it. What is the meaning of the word 
'disposition'? As ordinarily used it is a 
rather vague, ambiguous term, meaning one's 
general way of taking life. It applies partly 
to physical, partly to mental characteristics. 
In so far as it refers to the body, the statement 
that we cannot change our dispositions is ob- 
viously false; for the health may be greatly 
improved, nervous and excitable tendencies 
may be brought into subjection. Oftentimes 
the element which people complain of in them- 
selves, that is, in their characters, is in reality 
physical disturbance of some sort. Victims 
G 



98 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

of lawless tendencies, they cry out that they 
must ' grin and bear it.' But few errors could 
be greater than the mistaking of bodily con- 
ditions for traits of character. The mind may 
indeed have a certain way of meeting unruly 
physical tendencies. Yet both this ' way ' and 
the tendencies may be changed. In these 
days of practical idealism we are learning how 
to master and be free from the conditions of 
the body. It is absurd to complain when we 
have within us the power to attain self-control 
and freedom. 

It is clear that we must distinguish be- 
tween the body and the self or soul. When 
we turn from the body more specifically to the 
self, we learn that the self is a complex being 
and demands careful analysis. The fact that 
we are dissatisfied, and wish we might change 
our dispositions, shows that there are different 
aspects of the self. What we complain of is 
not the full self, but the lower nature, through 
whose experiences the higher nature is evolv- 
ing. What causes us to complain is the 
higher nature within us spurring us to develop- 



CAN WE CHANGE OUR DISPOSITIONS? 99 

ment. The lower self can be changed ; it is 
changing all the time. We may come to 
consciousness of that change and aid it by 
idealistic thought. 

The profounder question is this : Do we 
really desire to change the higher self? How 
many of us understand what the higher self 
is ? The whole question of individuality is 
involved in the answer. In the ultimate 
sense of the w r ord, individuality evidently 
means both one's own most intimately personal 
self, the true ego, and the divine ideal. The 
important thing in life is to realise the diviner 
self in all its fulness, to express it for the 
good of humanity. Individuality is the centre 
of the soul. It is that which is original in us. 
When we pause to consider, we discover that 
there is nothing we would sooner lose than 
this higher self. As for changing it — why, 
it is one's soul. What one really desires is 
not to change but more nobly to realise and 
manifest the soul. 

When we begin to look at the self from 
this higher point of view, we learn that a vast 



100 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

amount of time is misspent in the attempt to 
change the self. We try to c make ourselves 
over/ when in reality there is nothing we 
would rather be than that which we truly are. 
We try to reform other people. We make all 
sorts of arrogant assumption about them, as if 
we knew better than they what they ought to 
be. After a time we give up in despair, con- 
clude to let people be themselves, and at last 
we begin to display tolerance. The next step 
is to tolerate oneself. We think that because 
other people have what we call ' faults ' they 
are not as they should be. This is, of course, 
true in a sense, since a fault is in part a con- 
dition of evolution from lower to higher, and 
every one ought to manifest the higher self. 
But from another point of view a fault implies 
a limitation, and we are limited in order that 
we may do our work. 

You complain of yourself because, being a 
sensitively organised, easily influenced soul, 
you are not stolid and immovable like your 
friend. Your impervious friend envies you 
because you are so finely organised. Both the 



CAN WE CHANGE OUR DISPOSITIONS? 101 

sensitiveness in you and the stolidity in your 
friend are limitations which make your lives 
less beautiful and involve you in trying 
experiences. But the qualities which you 
each possess enable you to do your work. 
Your sensitiveness will bring you no pain 
when you understand it and direct it aright. 
Your limitations will be your virtues when 
you see their true place. 

Therefore, a time comes when one ceases to 
complain and is willing henceforth to take 
the self as it is and let it do its work in this 
beautiful world. Those who complain so much 
about themselves are usually those who find 
fault with others and condemn the world. 
Begin to see the wisdom of things as they 
are, and you will find new beauties even in 
yourself. This by no means implies self- 
esteem or self-contentment. To begin to 
discover what you are may be to become 
more discontented with yourself than ever, 
that is, discontented with your lower self. 
But while you see wherein you are unde- 
veloped you will also see how to change 



102 THE GEEATEST TRUTH 

yourself — that is, how the higher self may 
come into power. 

There is a sense, then, in which we can 
change our dispositions and change them most 
effectively. One's disposition is one's way of 
thinking and acting. Bring the higher self 
more into play and new habits will be formed. 
A person of a nervous, excitable disposition 
may become in a few years unusually calm 
and moderate. The change does not come 
about by working upon the nervousness and 
trying to calm it, but by cultivating inner 
peace, poise, equanimity. Best of all, the 
development of a wiser philosophy of life is 
accompanied by peace of mind. It is re- 
markable what changes may be wrought by 
persistence in the wiser direction. Some 
who have changed themselves from restless, 
excitable persons to moderate, well-poised 
individuals, find it difficult to persuade people 
that they were once entirely lacking in 
repose. 

Finally, the discovery that we can change 
our dispositions means that selfishness is 



CAN WE CHANGE OUR DISPOSITIONS ? 103 

not unconquerable. Everybody knows that 
selfishness will yield if one will but make 
the effort. There is no excuse for taking this 
part of ourselves as we find it. Before each 
of us there is a spiritual ideal, and no one 
knows how far and how high the endeavour 
to realise the ideal may carry the soul. Just 
as in a democratic country it is always possible 
for people in the common walks of life to rise 
into power, so in the spiritual universe ' there 
is always room at the top.' There is a more 
or less fixed individuality within each of us, 
but even this may be subject to change. At 
any rate, no man fully knows himself as yet. 
Meanwhile, the most rational procedure is to 
assume that we are practically modifiable 
without limit. No one can hope too much 
or dare too much in a universe where per- 
fection is the ideal, where the Christ spirit is 
ever ready to uplift, and where the grace of 
God enables every man to ' grow in grace/ 



CHAPTEE XI 

THE INNER LIGHT 

In nearly all departments of human endeavour 
art precedes science, and the illuminations of 
the inner light were manifest long before 
there was a theory of individual guidance. 
Wherever spiritual religion is found, there 
the inner light is recognised in life, if not in 
philosophy, for the basis of such religion is the 
shining of the divine presence in the soul of 
man. 

The sages of ancient India were believers 
in the inner illumination to such an extent 
that their whole philosophy was founded upon 
its revelations. All prophets, seers, and 
writers of sacred Scripture were believers in 
this inner sense; otherwise they would not 
have deemed it possible for God to com- 
municate through them. Mingled with faith 

104 



THE INNER LIGHT 105 

in God was therefore a noble self-reliance, 
that reliance which Emerson so strongly in- 
culcated. But, fortunately, emphasis was 
placed not upon the human but upon the 
God ward side. Thus these ancient seers 
teach us a lesson of receptivity, a lesson of 
great consequence in an age when there is 
a tendency to tamper with divine revelation. 

Socrates believed most truly in the inner 
guidance, although he emphasised its ethical 
rather than its spiritual side. All the Greek 
philosophers were in a profound sense be- 
lievers in individual guidance, and the Greeks 
were more free than most people to develop 
their individual thought. In fact, it was the 
influence of Greek thought which brought 
about the liberalism of the Eenaissance and 
laid the foundation of modern individual 
culture. 

Had the early Christians followed the teach- 
ing of Jesus in all its fulness there would 
have been no necessity for the inculcation of 
a special doctrine of the inner light. But, 
from the time when Christianity became 



106 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

external, an authoritative religion with official 
representatives, the foundations were gradually 
laid for the age-long conflict between the 
right of individual thought and the canons 
of ecclesiastical rulers. Thus a doctrine of 
the inner light became a necessity, and that 
which originally had been a natural accom- 
paniment of all religious beginnings, became 
a prize to be won by utmost skill in evading 
persecution and the inquisition, 

Jesus besought all men to look within 
where the Father had already provided guid- 
ance for all. The ecclesiastical authorities 
bade all men obey the dictates of venerable 
creeds and formalities. It became heretical 
to announce anything new, and thus the life 
went out of the inner world ; and the supreme 
principle of the inner light was completely 
obscured, namely, the law that to be true to 
its guidance one must be ready to break with 
the past, must constantly grow. 

It is interesting in this connection briefly 
to note the history of the modern struggle for 
liberty of thought, a struggle which has had 



THE INNER LIGHT 107 

much to do with the rediscovery of guidance 
in its more rationalistic form. 

One of the earliest of medieval philosophers 
to prepare the way for the recovery of the 
inner authority was Abelard, born in Brittany 
in 1079, who taught that reason is indepen- 
dent of theology, and is capable not only of 
explaining theology, but of enouncing doctrines 
of its own. Arnold of Brescia carried this 
heresy to Italy, in return for which he won 
banishment and finally public execution in 
Eome, in 1155. The humanism of the 
Eenaissance was of incalculable assistance in 
preparing the way, as its whole tendency was 
the emphasis of human right, the right to be 
an individual, to be broadly cultivated, and 
cherish new thoughts. 

But it was the religious reformation in 
Germany which furnished the fullest oppor- 
tunity for the development of the inner light. 
The authority of the pope had been discarded, 
and a new authority had to be substituted. 
This was ostensibly found in the Bible, yet 
it was more truly the right of individual 



108 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

reason. Direct personal experience thus 
became the foundation of religion, and once 
more religion was a live thing, not a dead 
husk or shell. Luther believed in the natural 
man, as opposed to the merely ecclesiastical 
man. Melancthon supported him by actually 
enouncing a doctrine of the ' natural light.' 
The way was now open for freer individual 
development, although for many generations 
it was necessary for philosophers ostensibly 
to agree with theology while secretly cherish- 
ing doctrines too heretical even for Pro- 
testants to tolerate. Jean Bodin, a French 
liberal thinker of this period, wrote a book so 
heretical that for ages it was known only in 
manuscript form and was not published until 
1841. Yet the heresy which caused the 
withholding of this book was the simple 
principle that a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Cal- 
vinist, a Jew, and a Mohammedan, might 
meet on a basis of spiritual equality, each one 
retaining his own faith ! 

Lord Herbert of Cherbery was a firm 
believer in the inner voice, and greatly aided 



THE INNER LIGHT 109 

the development of religious naturalism in 
England. Jacob Boehme rose from the 
humblest ranks in Germany and developed 
a complete mystical doctrine on the basis 
of the soul's inspiration. With him the inner 
light became a purely spiritual sense, and he 
seems as free from external authority as the 
great prophets of old. 

The growth of inner individual experience 
was greatly aided by the growth of science. 
Here the bondage to be thrown off was not 
merely the ecclesiastical authority, but the 
scholastic interpretation of Aristotle, so long 
the accepted theory of nature. Nicholas of 
Cusa made a great stride toward freedom of 
scientific thought when he declared that all 
our points of view are relative. The dis- 
coveries of Copernicus and Galileo greatly 
strengthened this position, and the growth of 
individual thought might have proceeded as 
triumphantly in Italy as in Germany had it 
not been for the martyrdom of Giordano 
Bruno, and the caution in expression of 
scientific opinions which his fate inspired. 



110 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Galileo dared not stand by his private thought, 
but set an example which was followed by 
many who might otherwise have made a great 
reputation in natural philosophy. Descartes 
concealed his acceptance of the Copernican 
astronomy beneath a subterfuge, while he 
hardly dared to express himself on ethical 
questions. No one will ever know how great 
a wealth of knowledge was hidden in the 
minds of those who dared not express it lest 
it conflict fatally with the doctrines of the 
church. Hobbes, who thought out a com- 
plete system on a materialistic foundation, 
taught that religion is an affair of the state, 
and his doctrine is rather a reaction against 
the liberalism of the Renaissance and the 
Eeformation than a development of free 
thought. And ' Spinoza was persecuted by 
both Jews and Protestants, even in free 
Holland. 

Every well-informed reader knows more 
or less about the persecutions endured by 
George Fox and the other Quakers. This 
brings us to our own country, whither many 



THE INNER LIGHT 111 

of the Quakers came. It brings us to Uni- 
tarianism in its struggle with orthodoxy, to 
Emerson and more recent times, when the 
inner light is the guide of thousands of 
liberal thinking men. The subject is so 
familiar to-day that we forget the ages in 
which men struggled to attain the freedom 
we now enjoy. 



CHAPTEE XII 

FAITH 

The opinion prevails that many religious 
customs and beliefs have been entirely out- 
grown. Those who are still in the process 
of transition from old creeds to new beliefs 
usually speak rather extravagantly of the 
notions which have been ' for ever discarded.' 
Doubtless many forms of religion are per- 
manently outgrown. There is a measure of 
truth in the extravagances of the iconoclast. 
But deeper knowledge of the religious life 
shows that the essentials of religion remain 
practically unchanged from age to age, and are 
nearly the same the world over. We may 
think we have wholly discarded the atone- 
ment, but the spiritual fact for which the 
theory of the atonement stood is still a pro- 
found part of our lives. We may have so far 
112 



FAITH 113 

rejected prayer in all its objective forms that 
we deem all prayer foolish. But something 
has taken the place of the old petitions, and 
we pray as fervently as ever. The same is 
true of faith. No man can pursue his work 
without it. It is one of the factors which 
make an undertaking possible in this universe 
of ours, where so much is unknown in 
advance of experience. 

With all his exact knowledge of the work- 
ing of natural forces, the scientific man must 
have faith in the universe, in himself, and in 
reason, in order to carry forward his special 
researches. Faith in law, in system, under- 
lies the modern scientific conception of nature. 
The truth-seeker has faith in truth despite all 
evidences which seem to prove that he never 
can attain it. The philosopher carries his 
constructive reasoning as far as he can, then 
falls back on faith to complete what his 
imperfect insight does not reveal. Whether 
we know it or not, the doctrine we live by is 
really a certain faith which we are willing to 
abide by, to test unto the end. Faith will 

H 



114 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

always be essential to the spiritual life. 
Trust in God underlies all religious beliefs 
and modes of conduct. Eeligion is, in a 
sense, faith, pure and simple. 

What is needed, then, is to bring the facts 
of faith into consciousness, to see how large 
a part it plays in life, and to have an in- 
telligent faith, based on knowledge of spirit- 
ual law. In reality, faith is the motive 
power which sets the inner life into activity. 
We live as members one of another in the 
divine order, and faith in the larger sense 
applies to the spiritual order of the universe. 
In another sense it relates to our human part 
in the life of things. Despite all that we 
know about the spiritual working of events, 
with all the assurance our faith gives us, we 
must make a certain venture, take ' a leap in 
the dark/ Man must have faith in himself, 
in his own power to make the uncertain move. 
The attitude of faith involves a paradox, 
then. It is a kind of knowledge of one's 
self and of the universe which amounts to 
practical certainty. Yet it is faith precisely 



FAITH 115 

because it involves an element of entire 
uncertainty. 

Faith, however, is not or need not be 
blind. The New Testament makes it plain 
that the operation of faith is a law of the 
spiritual life. Jesus explicitly says, ' Accord- 
ing to your faith be it unto you/ ' If ye 
have faith and doubt not' is the principle. 
Little faith accomplishes little ; great faith 
accomplishes almost anything. Paul assures 
his followers that in reality they ' walk by 
faith, not by sight.' Faith is a hidden in- 
tuition which guides us despite the illusions 
of ordinary thought and life. ' Before faith 
came we were kept under the law.' Now 
that faith has come there is 'one Lord, one 
faith, one baptism/ Through faith we know 
by an indubitable insight that ' the worlds 
were framed by the word of God, so that 
things which are seen were not made of 
things which appear/ 

But faith is far more than a general attitude 
of trust in the integrity of things, and in our 
own power to make ventures. In Acts, the 



116 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

apostles are frequently spoken of as ' full of 
faith and of power/ that is, imbued with 
the Holy Spirit. They not only had faith to 
believe but faith to do. This is the point where 
many fail. They have a general faith, but 
when the little tests come they are found 
wanting. But since e faith without works is 
dead,' and by works ' it is made perfect,' there 
must be a way to show that one really has 
faith. 

What does Jesus mean when He says, 
' Thy faith hath made thee whole ' ? Mere 
belief could not do this. If there is a 
1 prayer of faith ' which shall ' save the sick,' 
there are actual resources upon which we may 
draw. By faith we put ourselves into an 
attitude of union with the wisdom and love 
and power of God. We put ourselves in 
living relation with a superior order of things. 
We receive power, and this power can be 
used. Hence we should bear in mind the 
spontaneous results of the spiritually dynamic 
attitude, and have yet more faith. Those 
who were healed by their own faith, who 



FAITH 117 

merely touched the hem of Jesus' garment, 
unwittingly took a certain step, subconsciously 
broke free from their old conditions, felt the 
quickening power of spiritual life. What 
they did unconsciously we may accomplish 
intelligently by entering into the deeper 
knowledge of faith and its works. 

Faith also involves a certain willingness to 
meet whatever the future may bring that 
makes for spiritual evolution, even though 
more or less suffering is involved. ' My 
brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into 
diverse temptations ; knowing this, that the 
trying of your faith worketh patience.' 
' Faith is the substance of things hoped for 
the evidence of things not seen/ and hence is 
the implicit assurance that our deepest long- 
ing shall be satisfied. But the implied in- 
tuition relates rather to the outcome than to 
the conditions of its realisation. Much is 
usually implied that seems in no way to 
belong to the original insight. It is well for 
us, no doubt, that we do not at the outset 
know all that is involved in our faith, for in 



118 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

many cases we might not have sufficient 
belief to make the venture. The assurance 
that the end will actually be attained if we are 
faithful, is far more important than any know- 
ledge we might have in advance of the hard- 
ships along the way. The prime essential 
is willingness to meet and profit by that 
which faith may bring, whatever it may be, 
well knowing that it will work for the good 
of all concerned. 

The knowledge in advance of experience 
which some demand before they are willing 
to walk by faith is precisely that knowledge 
which cannot be given us without depriving 
us of the benefits of experience. Whether 
all the details are known to angels or others 
who may watch over us, at any rate it is 
better for us not to know as yet. A time 
may come when it will be right for us to 
know many events before they happen. 
The important fact just now is that ' faith is 
the substance of things hoped for/ If we 
already possess the essence we need not know 
the details. To possess the essence is in- 



FAITH 119 

tuitively to know the end. To know or feel 
the end, however dimly, is to be so confident 
that one is little concerned with the details ; 
one awaits their coming as parts of the 
beautiful novelty which ever constitutes one 
of the greatest joys of life. The essence and 
the end pertain to that which is eternal, the 
details relate to the passing and the temporal. 
Hence faith really involves a knowledge 
which is all that one could ask, provided one 
really understands. 

Again, to possess the essence is to be in 
relations of adjustment with the rhythms of 
guidance which progressively lead to the end 
and include all the essentials along the way. 
Finding oneself amidst an experience which 
has come as a heavenly gift, the important 
consideration is to let that experience develop 
in its own way, lead to its own ideal end. 
This means far more than at first appears, for 
we are prone to interfere, to hurry the ex- 
perience, or arrange the details to suit our- 
selves. Multiform adjustments are called for 
along the way, if we are to follow a heaven- 



120 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

sent experience to the end. For experiences 
that touch us deeply call for personal relation- 
ships of many kinds, and with each new 
relationship we are likely to mingle merely 
personal desires, to interfere with the free 
development of the experience. If we can 
but keep hands off, then the seemingly im- 
possible will happen. When the trials and 
tribulations along the way have been passed 
one looks back upon them with the discovery 
that in veriest truth we already possessed the 
essence at the outset. The moral is, more 
faith for another time, more willingness to 
believe that the smallest details have been 
provided for. 

Faith, then, implies a certain willingness 
to believe when everything that is im- 
mediately apparent seems to prove the con- 
trary. This statement has particular signifi- 
cance for all who believe in the everlasting 
realities of religion and the moral law, despite 
the negative conclusions of the critical philo- 
sophy. The critical philosophers are fond of 
dwelling on the limitations of human know- 






FAITH 121 

ledge and human nature, they place so much 
emphasis on the human conditions of guid- 
ance, revelation and the rest, that everybody 
begins to question whether God can really 
make Himself known to man, whether all so- 
called revelation be not merely man's own 
thought. A deeper understanding shows that 
it is precisely through these seemingly ex- 
clusive relativities that the power and 
wisdom of God are made known, that with- 
out the finite conditions there could be no 
revelation. Thus a deeper faith believes in 
the great realities despite the most serious 
doubts that can be raised. The important 
factor is seen to be, not the finite condition 
which apparently hinders or defeats, but the 
divine infinitude which transcends all limita- 
tions as means to ends. Hence a reaction 
sets in from agnosticism to faith. One sees 
that agnosticism was merely a halting 
thought along the way, that the true meaning 
of the divine revelation was not seen until the 
conditions of its coming were known. 

Thus faith passes through three stages. 



122 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

It seems to be complete when it merely 
possesses its object in immediate, uncritical 
form. It seems to be swept utterly away 
when the period of questioning sets in. 
But in the first stage it is faith without 
reason, hence the first wind of doubt disturbs 
it. In the second stage one seems to be 
separated from all that is most real, as if 
the foundations of life were being taken from 
under one's feet. Yet faith regains its com- 
posure and at last becomes stable and in- 
telligible. Only while one overestimates the 
unquestioning faith of childhood will one ever 
be fearful that faith's objects may be taken 
away. The gains are enormous as the mind 
passes into the third stage. In the end faith 
proves far more real than what is ordinarily 
called knowledge. One does not expect one's 
knowledge to overtake faith. Faith pertains 
to the reality which Emerson denominates 
' the flying perfect.' Fortunate are we if we 
care more for the developments it brings than 
for the stability of what usually passes as 
knowledge. To have faith is to be alive. 



CHAPTEK XIII 

THE VALUE OF PRAYER 

There is profound significance in the good 
old custom of beginning every important under- 
taking, starting each day with prayer. In 
these days, when many have outgrown the 
terminology of the older prayers, there is a 
tendency to omit prayer altogether. In many 
families the habit of prayer has been main- 
tained as a matter of form, while its value has 
been forgotten. It is important to consider 
the function of prayer in all times and places, 
in order that its permanent element may be 
distinguished from its forms and misuses. 

It is a superficial reaction against the 
custom of offering prayer, to allege that the 
language in which prayers are expressed is 
sentimental and absurd. The language of 
prayer is incidental. It takes the form of 

123 



124 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

man's beliefs. When man believed in an over- 
ruling Providence, who could ' do anything/ it 
was customary to ask for all sorts of foolish 
things. It seemed necessary to inform God 
just who were ill in the parish, and to pray for 
certain specified persons in a specified way. 
The growth of the conception of natural law 
has had much to do with the change of attitude 
in regard to these prayers ; for, in a universe 
where all things are provided according to law, 
it is of course absurd to persist in asking for 
the unlawful. The old conception of Pro- 
vidence has gone, and with it the notion that 
God needs to be informed concerning the 
needy and the sinful. Man now believes in 
the God of uniformity and system, hence he 
no longer expects God to upset the divine 
order to suit his caprice. But a new concep- 
tion of Providence has come forward, and the 
reason for prayer is as persuasive as ever. 
No true prayer was ever a capricious or selfish 
thing. JSTor does true prayer consist in mere 
petition. 

From the point of view of form, the older 



THE VALUE OF PRAYER 125 

prayers were decidedly inconsistent and un- 
christian. One of the fundamental proposi- 
tions of the Christian faith, as set forth by 
Jesus, is the declaration that the Father already 
knows what things we have need of before we 
ask Him, that all things have been provided, 
that His loving care is perfect. Since all 
things have been arranged in accordance with 
the highest wisdom, no man clothed in his 
right mind would have them changed. Since 
that loving care applies even to the sparrow, 
to the little details, and to the morrow, there is 
nothing to be added. Any prayer, then, which 
shows distrust, the least tendency to regulate 
things, is un-Christian. The conception of a 
law-governed universe is as clear and explicit 
in Jesus' sayings as it could be made. Man 
need not have waited until modern science had 
taught the reign of law, to see that the old 
idea of Providence is not a true conception. 
Providence means a looking ahead. The con- 
tingencies of life are provided for far in 
advance, not when they arise and when an 
over- anxious man informs an ignorant God. 



126 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Providence is wisdom, and the wisdom of the 
divine order is eternal. 

According to the conception of prayer which 
Jesus makes so persuasively clear, prayer does 
not and cannot change or improve anything in 
the divine order. The human part is not to 
alter or to improve, but to discover and to 
follow. Jesus makes a number of emphatic 
statements about certain kinds of public 
prayers, uttered for effect, which rule out cer- 
tain prayers frequently heard in our churches, 
as c vain repetitions.' The true prayer is 
uttered ' in secret/ that is, it is an affair of the 
heart. One must first turn aside from the 
world of show and self-seeking, and take a 
certain attitude of soul. This may be done in 
public or in solitude. The essential is that 
humble, receptive attitude, which puts one in 
a position to become aware of that which has 
1 already been provided.' 

Prayer does make a difference, then. It has 
its place, a very necessary place, in the religious 
life. But it makes a difference with man, not 
with God or the universe. For man forgets 



THE VALUE OF PRAYER 127 

that the providence of God applies to all 
things. He wanders away in pursuit of his 
own little plans. The great resource is to drop 
all that, seek the solitudes of the Spirit, in the 
inner world, meditate on the wisdom of God, 
and once more feel the forward rhythm of the 
divine life, as it carries all things forward to 
completion. That which is discerned within, 
in the secret place of the Most High, shall 
presently be made known openly, in the ex- 
ternal life. The reward shall be in proportion 
to the prayer, that is, in accordance with the 
receptivity, the adjustment to the divine 
rhythm. In so far as the prayer is uttered in 
a forgiving spirit, the result will be of the same 
character. 

But should one express the prayer in 
definite words ? Should one ask for specific 
things ? Certainly. From one point of view, 
even the old petitions were true prayer. The 
form of words matters little if the right spirit 
is put into them. Prayer is a certain attitude, 
an attitude toward the ideal. It is worship. 
It lifts the mind into a higher state, puts it 



128 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

into a certain spirit. The world of prayer 
is a large, universal world. We may not 
receive precisely what we ask for, or receive it 
when we ask for it. We cannot tell when our 
prayers may be answered, or how. But the 
essential is to put the soul once more into the 
divine current of things, in order that what- 
ever may be wise shall come in its own good 
time. 

It is well to ask for specific things, be- 
cause we then take a definite attitude of 
worship and readiness. And it is as true as 
ever that our prayers are answered in a very 
wonderful way. Prayer is one of the factors 
in the law of spiritual supply and demand. 
Here is a person, for example, who has re- 
sources to draw upon, power to impart, wisdom 
to give. Here is another who needs help. 
The first consecrates himself and his resources 
to the uses of the Spirit. The second reaches 
out for help. Both put themselves into the 
divine current of things, so that one is guided 
to give, the other to receive. Both have fulfilled 
the divine will, yet God has changed nothing. 



THE VALUE OF PRAYER 129 

The value of prayer as the right beginning 
of things is therefore this : Knowing that there 
is a divine order in which all things have 
been provided, we naturally desire to lift the 
new undertaking to the higher level and 
launch it in the higher spirit. If it be not 
worth beginning with prayer, then we had 
better not begin it. If irreverent people 
looking on, forgetful of the value of prayer, 
scoff at the notion, then show by your con- 
duct that the spirit of true religion is still 
abroad in the land. If there are young people 
present who smile at your supposed weakness 
when you begin the meal with a silent or 
spoken grace, let them once more feel the 
spirit of reverence which is so often lacking 
in these days. If you would have your day 
be all that it can be, if you would sleep the 
sleep of the little child, commend your spirit 
unto the Father in the good old-fashioned 
way. Even if you have persuaded yourself 
that God is some sort of impersonal ' Abso- 
lute/ be human again, and pray to God as 
the Father, and make the relation as personal 
I 



130 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

as you please. The God of the heart is the 
true God. Hence you may well disregard 
the abstruse arguments of the philosophers. 
God answers prayer as much as He ever did, 
and He has been answering it all down 
through the ages, because all down through 
the ages it has been necessary for man to 
seek readjustment with the Father. Man 
has not been able to manage his life alone. 
The divine Spirit has ever moved upon him. 
It is ever ready to aid. On the Godward 
side the power that is active in prayer is un- 
ceasing in its good works. The man who 
prays ' without ceasing ' is the man who ever 
carries about with him the realisation that 
' my Father worketh hitherto and I work/ 
Thus prayer is part of the creative life of 
God. It reveals the divine grace, and the 
divine grace is no respecter of persons. 

From the point of view of form, the Lord's 
Prayer may be unsatisfactory, for it asks God 
not to lead man into temptation, and of course 
God would not do that. But prayer is to be 
understood in the spirit, not by the letter. 



■ 



THE VALUE OF PRAYER 131 

The Lord's Prayer expresses the aspiring spirit 
in its desire for liberty. The form matters 
little. Some of the recorded prayers of Jesus, 
when the crucifixion was near, seem a little 
strange when we consider who uttered them. 
But in those prayers the human self is re- 
vealed in its ascent to the divine as it is 
revealed nowhere else in all literature. The 
supreme prayer is the consecration of the soul 
where the way is indeed hard. To travel 
upon that way even Jesus found it necessary 
to go apart into the mountain to pray. If 
He needed it, how much more do we ! And 
there is no problem in the wide range of our 
needs and difficulties which will not be carried 
forward to its solution by taking it up into 
the mount of prayer. Never mind, then, if 
your words often fall below the standard, and 
reveal inconsistencies. The essential is to 
pray, really to pray. Do that, and the other 
things shall be added. 



CHAPTEE XIV 

THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD 

Few words in Christian thought and life 
have more meaning than the inspiring word, 
'Father.' The word was by no means new 
in the sense in which Jesus used it. It is 
a universal term, and has been used in all 
ages and among many peoples to signify the 
highest conception of God. But it receives a 
new spirit in the life and teachings of Jesus. 
The whole life and meaning of the Christ is 
summed up when Jesus lifts His eyes to 
heaven and speaks c as no man spake/ ad- 
dressing God as the Father. Hence in a 
peculiar sense it is a Christian word. In 
those memorable passages in which the human 
side of Jesus is most clearly seen, Jesus is 
always reported as addressing the Father, 
either in a spirit of thankfulness, or in mo- 

132 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD 133 

nientary despair lest the human shall not be 
equal to the task set by the divine. On the 
other hand, the idea of the divine fatherhood 
is central in the entire Gospel teaching, in the 
conception of the Kingdom of God as already 
* at hand.' Thus the word has a special 
meaning for the struggling soul, alone in its 
anguish ; and a meaning for every moment 
of social conduct, inasmuch as it implies the 
supremacy of love and the brotherhood of 
man. 

For each one of us, however humble, how- 
ever learned, it is the word ' Father,' with all 
that it implies, which keeps the thought of 
God from becoming vague, mystical, or pan- 
theistic. When we try to define what we 
mean by the idea of God, it is easy to yield 
to the thought that God is beyond all defini- 
tion, perhaps unknown, or f unknowable.' But 
the word ' Father ' saves one from all this. 
Utter that word in all reverence and humility, 
realise what it means to be a child of God, 
and God will always mean something per- 
sonal to you. It is not necessary to enlarge 



134 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

this thought to include all that you mean 
when you conceive of God as the creator of 
this great universe. It is the personal, the 
individual relation that is now in question. 
Do not hesitate, then, to address the Father 
as if for the moment He were the God of your 
own heart alone, within your most intimate 
life and thought. Unless the Father is thus 
personal for you, unless you find Him when 
you worship at the altar of your own heart, 
you are not likely to see Him in the lives of 
your fellows or in the operations of Nature. 

It is this relationship which Jesus most 
fully dwells upon in the Sermon on the 
Mount. The Father is revealed within the 
sacred precincts of the soul. All needs have 
been provided for, and true prayer discovers 
them. The Father is just, impartial, knows 
the needs of each of us, knows what befalls 
us, and rewards each man according to his 
works. Hence the Father is not only the 
source of all goodness, and of all guidance, 
but is in a profound sense the Friend, the 
sustaining Presence which each soul appre- 



THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD 135 

hends in a direct and individual way. The 
Fatherhood of God implies the individuality 
of man. There is nothing higher, no guidance 
that is more direct, ultimate, conclusive, than 
that which comes to the soul in the supreme 
moments of receptivity, of willingness to seek 
the Father's way, and to walk in that way. 

The first consideration is the universal 
Fatherhood, the supreme fact, the upward 
look, in readiness and consecration of spirit. 
Then follows the recognition of what the great 
fact means. Taken in the largest sense of 
the word, the conception of the Fatherhood of 
God means that God is the original source of 
the existence of all beings and things, that 
all our life, power, and intelligence came prim- 
arily from Him. Hence the primacy of the 
divine Fatherhood is the first principle of our 
real life. To understand this fundamental 
principle is to see that all men are members 
one of another in a purposive kingdom of 
ends. We are here to manifest the Father's 
will, fulfil His all-inclusive purpose. 

But the Father is not alone the original 



136 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

source of our being. He is also the immediate 
source of our life and power day by day, and 
week by week. He is immanent, ever-present, 
in intimate relation with the soul. The 
divine spirit not only went forth in creative 
activity long ago, but is resident in all that 
is carrying humanity forward to-day. Hence 
it is amidst the activities of daily life that the 
presence of God is to be realised. 

If it is literally true that there is one 
Father of all, then all men are without ex- 
ception sons of God. The recognition of 
divine Fatherhood is necessarily the recogni- 
tion of divine sonship. If the Father has 
made provision for each and all of us so that 
no hardship shall befall us which cannot be 
mastered, no temptation which we cannot 
conquer, then surely there is a part of our 
life that is for ever divine. Hence the com- 
mand, ' Be ye perfect even as your Father in 
heaven is perfect,' is to be taken in entire 
seriousness. Divine sonship is open to all. 
There is no moment in the life of any of us 
when the Father's presence cannot be found. 



THE FATHEKHOOD OF GOD 137 

There is literally no barrier which separates 
us from the Father. God is not merely omni- 
present — He is the very power, reality, which 
makes our existence possible within His pre- 
sence. On the Godward side, man must 
always be looked upon as a son, hence as 
pure, true spirit. 

Yet it is still true that it is those who live 
by the spirit of God who are worthy to be 
called sons of God ; ' all things work together 
for good for those who love the Lord/ There 
are certain conditions to be observed on man's 
part, otherwise the Fatherhood of God means 
nothing to him. What is God as Father ? 
Above all He is love, wise — impartial, uni- 
versal love. He is made known to the 
individual soul as the Holy Spirit; it is the 
Spirit which unites Father and son. There- 
fore to be a son of God in very truth is to 
manifest the divine love and wisdom, to walk 
by the Spirit. The grace of God is conferred 
when the Spirit speaketh. The Spirit speaks 
in accents of peace. It soothes the troubled 
soul, even as a father pitieth his children. 



138 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

It is the comforter which leadeth into all 
truth. 

The very fact, then, that one approaches 
God with the great word, ' Father/ implies 
that one has overcome the sense of separate- 
ness which ordinarily sunders man from God, 
that one is ready to give up one's own way, 
and ask in deepest humility, ' What wilt thou 
have me do ? ' For it is in our dependence, 
in our extremity that we cry out unto the 
Father, with a confession that our own way 
has failed, and we know not whither to turn. 
Hence it is still from the Father's side that 
the decisive power comes. The Father so 
loves His children that He descends in the 
form of the Holy Spirit. The whole meaning 
of the incarnation is involved in this coming 
of the Spirit to waken man out of his forget- 
fulness. 



CHAPTEE XV 

A LAW OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 

There are two modes in which men ordinarily 
pass through life. There are people who 
move along, from day to day, about as they 
have always lived, or as others live around 
them. They sometimes raise questions ; they 
wonder, are fearful, distressed or are victims 
of conflicting emotions. But they do not 
think, do not pursue their questions, hence 
they possess only the resources which circum- 
stances make known. But there are other 
people who seek to know the law of human 
living. They do not simply pass from 
experience to experience, swept on by the 
great currents of physical and social life. 
They put experience with experience and 
reflect. Out of such thinking springs the 
knowledge which is ' power.' 

139 



140 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

One of the most profitable results of such 
thinking is the explanation of the transition 
stage through which we all pass in our 
mental and spiritual evolution. A time 
comes in our growth when the enthusiasm 
and faith of childhood are gone. Problems 
and doubts arise. Conflicts and inner 
struggles ensue. For the time all the way 
seems dark and uncertain. To those who 
do not seek the law of experience there 
seems to be no resource but to return to 
the period of unquestioning faith. ' Where 
ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.' If 
one can only cease to question, one can be 
happy again — so it seems. There is much 
lamentation over the loss of the freshness 
and spontaneity of the first period of life. 
Hence the cry goes up, Eeturn to nature ! 
Back to the simplicity of faith ! 

Is any such return possible ? The experi- 
ence of men shows us that there is not. It 
is not a question of return, but of advance. 
As matter of fact, there are three periods 
through which we pass in all our growth. 



A LAW OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 141 

There is first the period of nature, childhood, 
of first experiences, first thoughts, first loves. 
Under this head belong all original instincts 
promptings, stirrings, conversions, and the 
like. This is the period when we take in 
power, when we are quickened into action. 
Then ensues a stage when we begin to 
assimilate the power. We go forth filled 
with enthusiasm, eager to convert the world, 
expecting soon to become perfect ourselves. 
But we forthwith meet opposition, the unre- 
generacy of human nature, and the new life 
wrestles with the old. Then doubts arise, 
darkness follows, and we think we have lost 
our hold. This is the stage which so many- 
are in, in these transition days. It is the 
period of self- consciousness, of endeavour to 
attain, of discipline, training, the effort to 
acquire self-control. Uncertain whither they 
are tending, unable to return to the untroubled 
stage of mere acceptance of belief, people 
often become agnostics in this period. But 
there is a third period which men enter when 
the new life has become part of them, when 



142 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

the skies once more clear, and the law of 
evolution is seen. 

The intermediate period is a long, long one 
for most of us. But the whole process of 
growth is put in a different light when we 
grasp the law. To see the meaning, the 
outcome, is to be content to pass through the 
means necessary to attain the end. Every 
time we aspire, each time we pray, we set 
out upon this threefold sequence. Every new 
theory we consider, every art, science, or 
occupation we take up, we pass through the 
same round. There is first the desire, the 
will, the ideal ; then the self-conscious 
endeavour, the analysis, testing, searching, 
experimenting ; but finally the new habit is 
established. To arrive at the third stage is 
to begin to know, to be able to do our work 
well, to acquire inner repose, ease, equanimity. 
It is also to see that nothing has been lost, 
that the self-conscious period was a stage 
of growth, not of degeneration (as we once 
thought). And so there is a recovery of 
spontaneity, enthusiasm, faith. But it is 



A LAW OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 143 

now spontaneity of a higher sort, the calm 
enthusiasm of wisdom, the faith which can 
give reasons. 

The same series is passed through every 
time a new truth is uttered. A wise writer 
once said of his book that if it called out 
opposition he should know there was some- 
thing in it. Every sound idea must be tried, 
tested, must undergo controversy. Each time 
we have a new insight into the spiritual ideal 
and resolve to be faithful we are tested anew. 
Hence even the Christ meets temptation. 
But when we see the law we are no longer 
surprised that the temptation comes. 

It is sometimes said that the period of 
innocence is the desirable stage of human life. 
Jesus assures us that unless we become as 
little children we shall by no means enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. But He does 
not add, Ye must remain little children. 
The majority of men agree that it is natural 
and right for every son of God to go forth 
into the world of experience. We do not 
know that we are sons of God when we first 



144 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

go forth. It is contrast, conflict, duality 
that shows us the law. A time comes when 
we see that there are two selves within us, 
the one divine, the other human. While we 
hold them side by side there seems to be 
no solution for our problems and conflicts. 
But in due course we discern the meaning of 
that other saying of Jesus, 'He that loseth 
his life shall find it.' To understand this 
law is to enter the third stage. The gradu- 
ally attained results of the second period are 
now turned to account. There is no power 
in human life which the Spirit cannot use. 
The more intellectual training we have the 
better, the more knowledge we possess the 
more efficient we can become — if only all 
that we have and all that we are is dedicated 
to the service of the Spirit. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

WISDOM 

Much has been said and written about the 
superiority of intuition, the primacy of ex- 
perience as directly perceived. It is well to 
emphasise the value of first-hand experience 
in contrast with theoretical interpretations 
of it. There is every reason in favour of 
the cultivation of the receptivity essential 
to such experience. The preservation of 
spontaneity is one of the great needs of life. 
There is nought to say against this ideal. All 
reality is, in a sense, primarily immediate, and 
nothing can take the place of direct, personal 
acquaintance with the great realities of life. 

Yet there is another ideal. As valuable 
as first-hand experience may be, there is 
additional worth in reconsidered experience. 
This statement is true even of the most 

K 



146 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

exalted spiritual visions. Experiences which 
stir us deeply are often too absorbing to be 
rightly estimated at the time. A subtle 
illusion pervades our noblest emotions. When 
we report our visions we are apt to read too 
much into them, if we simply try to describe 
them in their original form. Hence the ex- 
cesses of mysticism and pantheism. Hence 
the over-confidence of much popular optimism. 
It is often tacitly assumed that because an 
experience was original, first-hand, an affair 
of feeling, therefore it was entirely true, pre- 
cisely as it came. It is also assumed that a 
person cannot be deceived who has once dedi- 
cated himself to intuition. The fact that a 
statement is made on the authority of intui- 
tion is often taken to mean that it is infallible. 
Now, I do not wish to cast the least suspicion 
upon those who are deeply in earnest to dis- 
cover and to voice intuition. No doubt intui- 
tion is, ideally speaking, practically infallible. 
In general, to be guided by intuition is to 
follow the highest, purest guidance that ever 
comes to man. It is not our most conscious 



WISDOM 147 

reasoning processes that give us our loftiest 
truths, but our quick insights, our spiritual 
discernment. Yet to compare the utterances 
of varied types of people who refer to intuition 
as their authority is to learn that there are 
grades and degrees of success in the discovery 
and expression of intuition ; hence that in- 
fallibility is still an ideal. No doubt the 
original prompting is profoundly true and 
genuine. But one is not always in a mood 
either to discern or to report it correctly. 
The assumption that I am here analysing, 
is the claim that impressionism is the truest 
form of expression of immediate experience. 
The mere impression may be relatively super- 
ficial. The deep truth implied in the experi- 
ence is rather to be discovered by sober second 
thought. The new first thought may be 
unduly coloured by merely personal enthu- 
siasm, emotion and inclination. But genuine 
guidance is disinterested. It is more apt to 
speak through our calmer moments. Hence 
a higher ideal stands out before us, the ideal 
of Wisdom. 



148 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

By this term I do not mean what is called 
< mere intellect/ Nor do I mean cold criti- 
cism, but deep, moderate, comprehensive, and 
above all, appreciative thought ; thought that 
has been enriched by experience. Hence 
Wisdom grows, not out of mere theorising, but 
out of life. It is a peculiar and altogether 
wonderful combination of reason and the spirit. 

Sometimes when one sits quietly observing 
a company of people who are talking about 
the more serious concerns of life, one notices 
a striking difference between the speakers. 
Some have a ready flow of thoughts, and 
seem able to carry everything before them, 
on account of their command of facts and 
ideas. But there are others who say little, 
in a quiet, incidental way, usually in the lulls 
when the more eloquent people are pausing 
for breath. The utterances of these thought- 
ful observers who sit on the outskirts of the 
blare and bluster of life are not heralded by 
claims of any sort, and they are sometimes 
almost drowned by the general din. Yet it 
is these utterances that appeal to and abide 



WISDOM 149 

with us. Perhaps you and I have met scarcely 
half a dozen men and women whom we have 
set down as ' wise/ But our ideal is to be 
like these few. All else is mere pretension 
in comparison. In our heart of hearts we 
feel that a man really knows when he has 
lived. Whatever his inspiration may have 
been, the confirmation which experience gives 
is far greater. The wise man's intuitions 
have met the test of everything that can be 
brought to bear against them. Hence they 
bear the power of authority. Hence they 
inspire confidence. 

Our Divine Father is often spoken of as 
essentially c Love/ Here, again, one can take 
away nothing. But Swedenborg speaks of 
the Lord as c the Divine Love and Wisdom/ 
One sees that Swedenborg is right. Without 
perfect Wisdom there cannot be perfect Love. 
The Divine Love is never ' blind ' ; it is light, 
and it illumines. We need only renew our 
ideal of the all-wise Father in order to 
correct the misapprehensions which I am 
here analysing. 



150 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

The proposition may be laid down that, 
for us mortals, nothing can be adequately, 
truly known until it is calmly reconsidered. 
No experience, no proposition, is absolutely 
true as it stands, alone, but must be put with 
its complement. To compare and discover 
the richer meaning of our deepening insights 
and experiences, is to pass to a higher form 
of experience than mere first - handedness, 
whether it be intellectual or spiritual. 

Many people mistakenly suppose that there 
is no alternative between the immediate ex- 
perience or discernment, on the one hand, 
and what they condemn as mere intellect on 
the other. But there are several alternatives. 
Illumined reason is decidedly superior to the 
sort of intuition that is ordinarily popular. 
Those who pass from experience to experience, 
from prophet to prophet, and from teaching 
to teaching, without discovering by com- 
parison what is wise in each, miss the deeper 
meaning not only of life, but of the spirit 
itself. In this connection comparisons are 
not ' odious/ but are the only sure guides to 



WISDOM 151 

what is permanently true. To follow prophet 
after prophet simply because one ' feels ' that 
his teaching is true, is to pursue surfaces, not 
realities. In the long-run, mere feeling is 
a less safe guide than mere intellect ; the 
genuinely trustworthy guide is Wisdom. 

Such being the ideal, how is it to be realised ? 
In the first place, Wisdom differs in a marked 
respect from most of the treasures of life ; it 
absolutely cannot be imitated, put on, or 
counterfeited. A man who is gifted with 
a ready tongue, or who sweeps people before 
him with his eloquence, his exuberance of 
feeling or his dominating personality, may 
seem to be what he is not. Half the learned 
people in the world are accredited with the 
possession of what they have not. Half the 
' spiritual ' people are supposed to be what 
they are not. But no man can pass himself 
off as wise. Hence Wisdom is not to be won 
at a leap, it cannot be attained by affirmation. 
One may, indeed, pray fervently for, and re- 
ceive guidance. But guidance is not yet 
Wisdom. Wisdom is not in any sense a gift. 



152 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

We may, however, prepare for its coming. 
The few men we have met who were really 
wise have taught us how to begin. For they 
sat there amidst the praters and devotees of 
mere feeling, in a calm, dispassionate attitude. 
What they uttered was spoken quietly, even 
conservatively, with no desire to be impressive. 
They were men of composure, poised, moderate, 
abounding in an admirably gentle humility. 
Such composure is an affair of slow growth ; 
such poise is the result of many a victory. 
The moderation is not put on for the occasion, 
but is habitual ; it comes after passion has 
subsided. The humility is a crowning char- 
acteristic of genuine knowledge. 

Need a man wait until he is grey-haired ere 
he can be wise ? Not at all. Wisdom begins 
with the beginnings of self-control, equa- 
nimity, verification, and, above all, with the 
dawning of reason. It begins with insight, 
and by this term I mean a higher function 
than what is popularly known as intuition. 
For insight is possible only when one 
possesses not merely intuition, but knowledge 



WISDOM 153 

of laws and principles by which to discern 
the meaning of things. Wisdom takes account 
of the actual facts of life, does not shut its 
eyes to anything. As compared with what 
usually passes current as optimism and pessi- 
mism, it is bent on knowing the truth of 
things. Wisdom is strong in faith, hope, and 
cheer, despite the facts which would over- 
throw the faith of the typical optimist. 
Wisdom quietly observes events and people, 
then as quietly arrives at reasoned conclusions, 
based on discernment of their profound 
significance. The wisdom of things is their 
law, their profoundest affinity and love. 

The ideal of Wisdom, then, is illumined 
reason. And the moral is easily seen. Hold 
your experiences in solution. Let your in- 
tuitions season. Take your prophets under 
observation. Permit your emotions to cool. 
Be no less spontaneous, meanwhile. Give 
forth your first impressions. Do not quench 
the spirit. But do not too highly estimate 
your ' wonderful experiences.' Do not fall 
into the delusion which besets the people who 



154 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

make a hobby of spirituality, namely, the 
notion that they are a little better than other 
folks, that whatever they happen to utter is 
so sacred in the first form in which it comes 
that no one may tamper with it. The scholar 
who is condemned as merely 'intellectual' 
sets a better example. The master of a 
branch of learning already knows enough to 
discern how little he knows. Hence, he is 
humble, and humility is a large part of 
Wisdom. 



CHAPTEE XVII 

HARMONY 

The most impressive fact in the great universe 
around us is undoubtedly the perpetual march 
of events, the continuous change or flux which 
characterises all the activities of men and 
things. Life never abruptly begins, it never 
suddenly ends, it never wholly pauses. 
Something is ever in motion, something is 
being accomplished. There is a forward 
march, not of great masses, but of minute 
parts and particles. The seasons come and 
go with apparent rapidity, yet the transitions 
are gradual. All vegetation maintains an 
unbroken mutation. History is making day 
by day, political parties are changing, society 
is adopting new customs. Men come and 
go. All forms are altering, new forms are 
appearing, and thus, ever forward, without 

155 



156 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

rest, without exact repetition, with perennial 
novelties and unceasing delights, the huge 
world organism pulsates away from the past 
to the future, from yesterday to to-day, and 
from to-day to to-morrow. 

If we look into the inner world, we discover 
the same tireless flux, the same surprising 
mutation. Our consciousness never pauses, 
it never rests; it is always interested, it is 
always presenting a new moment of being. 
Our words and ideas abide for a season, then 
depart to give place to new states of con- 
sciousness. Some states of mind linger, it is 
true, but only through continued renewing, 
never by the persistence of precisely similar 
consciousness, for consciousness is a stream, 
it is a part of the great pulsating life. It 
acquaints us with the ceaseless change of the 
outside world, and keeps pace with it. It ever 
lives with a life peculiarly its own. 

If we ask what is the ultimate basis, the 
fundamental significance of this great flux 
within us and around us, it at once becomes 
clear that behind, beyond, and yet within the 



HARMONY 157 

perpetual march must be a perpetual Presence 
to maintain it. Every pulsation is in a sense 
a fresh creation, a new revelation of God, for 
the divine life is manifested by the little 
things, the infinitesimal changes, the gradual 
attainments, the tireless upwelling of life in 
the world of nature, and the world of thought. 
Not a moment could exist without that 
Presence. Not a moment could anything 
endure unless it were carried forward to new 
life by the same Power that once brought it 
forth. The perpetual flux is made perpetual ; 
things are ever in motion just because the 
outgoing activity of the one Power is per- 
petual. Furthermore, since the entire march 
of events is a unit, one great organism carried 
forward by a perpetual Achiever, this con- 
tinual becoming is governed by a central 
ideal. God is steadily accomplishing through 
the life of the great organism the one great 
purpose which called it into being. Every 
moment of our lives, every thought, every 
sensation, is a part of this one creative move- 
ment. All things are in process of becoming, 



158 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

all consciousness is a becoming. Conse- 
quently the meaning, the real significance of 
the march of things and men, is the pro- 
gressive realisation of the divine, the perfect 
ideal. This being the great fact of life, the 
eternally forward movement toward the great 
goal of harmony, the question is, what shall 
be man's attitude toward this progressive 
flux irresistibly bearing him onward, both 
bodily and mentally ? 

The history of philosophy and religion is 
the record of the attitudes assumed by man in 
relation to this great upwelling, for in some 
form man is ever conscious of its presence, 
and his opinion of it has always taken em- 
bodiment in some attitude. If ignorant of its 
ultimate unity, he has regarded it as a two- 
fold force — good and evil. If imbued with a 
sense of its spirit, he has often identified 
nature and God, and even worshipped himself 
as a part of the great pantheistic whole. 
Some have regarded it as the worst world- 
order possible, and so have become pessimists. 
Some have become so optimistic that they 



HARMONY 159 

were of no use to society, since they believed 
that all must come out well, whatever course 
might be pursued. But by far the larger 
number have assumed a sort of rebellious 
attitude : consequently, the perpetual flux, 
instead of producing harmony, has produced 
discord. Yet if all things work together for 
harmony, carried forward by the perpetual 
Presence, the forces manifested in pain and 
evil are a part of the same harmonious system. 
Ultimately, I say, they must be making for 
harmony, but in man these forces produce 
discord. We must then look to man as the 
prime cause of his trouble. 

In the first place, man is still unfinished. 
As some one has said : ' He is still in the 
workshop of God/ He has undeveloped sides. 
All who suffer, and are not sound and strong, 
are in a measure unfinished. They are on 
the road. The creative power, ever present 
with them, is at work upon them, seeking to 
perfect the physical, intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual organisms. It is constantly stirring 
within. It is perpetually upwelling. But 



160 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

if this process is misunderstood, it is resisted, 
it is taken to be some hostile force or disease 
attacking the organism from outside. The 
first point, therefore, in the search for har- 
mony, is the proper understanding. We 
must know what the perpetual march means. 
We must think, first of all, of the outcome, 
concentrating upon the divine ideal. We 
must transmute the force once spent in resist- 
ing this up welling force into co-operation 
with it. Thus recognition and co-operation 
are the two words which, above all others, 
suggest the wise attitude toward the bene- 
ficent Power which, when misunderstood, was 
deemed a hostile power. 

The attainment of the right attitude of 
adjustment to the divine creative power well- 
ing up within us, means far more, however, 
than appears at first thought. The law of 
the universe is variety. The world is many- 
sided, complex. Man, as an epitome of 
creation, bears within him all these manifold 
relations. He is not simply a mind, or a 
body, a soul, an intellect ; an artist, poet, a 



HARMONY 161 

moral being, or a social individual. He is all 
of these, and much more. He is primarily a 
soul, possessing a perpetually evolving con- 
sciousness, a spiritual nature, a moral sense, 
an intellect, a social instinct, a body, and 
many avenues of expression. He must, then, 
come to consciousness of himself first of all 
as a soul, then in these many directions awake 
to knowledge of his possibilities, and begin 
the great work of many-sided development. 
For the creative power is at work upon him 
from all these sides — it is seeking to make 
him a rounded-out character, a fully-developed 
soul, a perfect being — physically, intellect- 
ually, morally, and spiritually. This is so, 
because the creative power is manifold and 
varied in its manifestation. It is not simple, 
but complex ; not poor, but wealthy. 

Harmony is the great ideal, it is because it 
is so hard to attain, because it must become 
universal ; its constituents are like the bits of 
a great mosaic, slowly fitted together to form 
a transcendently beautiful picture. Each 
creature that lives must attain harmony ; 
L 



162 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

each man must come to consciousness of what 
harmony means, so that his pain shall cease, 
and he shall become a loving, helpful member 
of the great republic of God, and each man 
must come to consciousness in all these many 
directions. 

We have all attained harmony in some 
respects, but we are still imperfect, and must 
therefore consider wherein we are still resist- 
ing the divine power; what it is in us that 
keeps us in discord. 

It is a great temptation when one has 
adopted a certain profession, accepted a re- 
ligious creed or philosophical doctrine, to 
make a hobby of one's chosen occupation or 
theory of life, and so prepare the way for 
future one-sidedness. This danger is one 
which every seeker after harmony has to 
consider. Even when it is the spiritual life 
which one has chosen, the tendency oftentimes 
is to cultivate the spirit at the expense of 
other sides of one's nature, and to the neglect 
of the body. The business man becomes 
merely the business man, the recluse neglects 



HARMONY 163 

society, the society man has no time for 
solitude, the scientific man crushes out the 
spirit, and the religious man is unscientific. 

Others have placed too great stress upon 
the inner world, and so have lost many of 
the beauties of the world of nature. Some 
have actually believed that thought creates 
all the qualities of matter, as though human 
thought, instead of divine wisdom, were the 
source of the manifold beauties of the per- 
petual flux of things. 

A nobler philosophy shows us that every 
phase of this perpetual becoming in the 
natural world possesses a glory, a beauty of 
its own ; it is an expression of the divine 
harmony. It exists in and by itself, inde- 
pendent of man's thought. It would be there 
even though there were no minds to think 
about it. 

To be sure, no two people are affected 
exactly alike by natural phenomena, no two 
feel the same sensations, no two have the 
same tastes: but the difference is in them. 
Nature possesses universal qualities which all 



164 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

would feel alike if all were organised alike. 
She possesses qualities of harmony, of beauty, 
which it should be the desire of every man 
to apprehend. Adjustment is the ideal — 
adjustment to the qualities of existence as 
God has constituted it to be. We are to 
ask, What wilt Thou have it to be ? What is 
the divine command, the divine tendency ? 

This is the true Christ law, the universal 
Christ spirit, which, instead of imposing itself 
upon the universe, first asks what the universe 
is. We are to ask then, first, What is, what is 
the real, the divine quality ; then ask, What 
ought to be, what is the divine tendency ? In 
this way we lift our science and our thought 
to the divine level. We begin to realise in life 
and in thought the harmony of the universe. 
And is it not wise and right that one should 
seek harmony in matters of food and dress, 
as well as in one's general surroundings, in 
one's companionships, books, and states of 
mind? Surely no detail is too trivial to 
deserve neglect. All things are a part of 
the great perpetual march, and all things 






HARMONY 165 

may be lifted to the level of the perpetual 
Presence. 

I mean that we should make all these 
things a study, that we shall cultivate our 
voices, develop our bodies, train our intellect, 
and seek harmony in every detail of daily 
existence. And all this can be done without 
in any way departing from the ideals of the 
Spirit, for it is all to be accomplished through 
the Spirit by means of the forces set in motion 
by thought ; that is, we are to put the higher 
thought into whatever we do. We are to 
exercise our bodies with the consciousness of 
the divine power we are using. We are to 
develop in all these directions as instruments 
in the great creative work. 

And so we return each time to the central 
thought. There is a perpetual march of 
events, a constant forward movement of the 
life which pulsates in and around us, and an 
ever active, conscious stream within. Back 
of all this great movement there is a perpetual 
Presence, a Power that makes for harmony. 
It is our part to study the tendencies of that 



166 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Presence as it is revealed in the perpetual 
march, and harmonise with it, co-operate, 
listen for its guidance, declare its presence 
to mankind, and so by making our instru- 
ments more and more beautiful, give fuller 
and fuller manifestation to its spirit, its love, 
and its peace. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

THOUGHTS 

' Cease to judge, if you would not be 
judged/ 

It is an epoch-making discovery in human 
life when man learns that the utmost which 
any doctrine or teacher can do for him is to 
put him in command of his own resources. 
To discover that the highest resources are 
directly open to the individual is to begin at 
last to be poised. Until this fact is learned, 
people restlessly cast about for that which can 
only be found within. 

It is a false inference that a belief is true 
simply because a loved one holds it. One 
should be able to separate persons from 
beliefs. 

Adverse physical conditions begin to 

167 



168 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

assume new aspects as soon as we see the 
spiritual meaning of our experience in relation 
to them. 

Some say that guidance is to do the will 
of another. But suppose the other's will is 
selfish, does the principle hold? One may 
be temperamentally inclined to yield too 
much. In this case one should learn rather 
to be strong in the presence of others. The 
advice is good, however, for people of a 
managerial type. 

There is oftentimes much behind when 
people insist that one person or one doctrine 
is 'just as good as another.' This proposi- 
tion may mean that the maker of it is un- 
willing to acknowledge that another man 
is wiser than himself. People of genuine 
spiritual attainment are not concerned to 
reduce all mankind to a dead level. 

Very many times that which people 
endeavour to prove is what they will to 
prove, not that which is reasonably true. 

Our first impressions may be correct, but 
we do not know that they are true until 



THOUGHTS 169 

experience has confirmed them. Hence it is 
well to accept them with reservations. 

Many a reputed genius owes his fame to 
the fact that a large part of his sentences are 
obscure. Admirers labour over him and 
deem him great because his meaning is hard 
to find. Had he really been great he would 
have been able to tell what he meant. 

Whatever is here was possible. Let us 
then concern ourselves with the effort to 
understand it. The mere question of possi- 
bility is of slight moment. 

It is supposed to be an argument against 
philosophy that philosophers change their 
minds. But it is only the mediocre mind 
which commits itself to opinion instead of to 
reason, and reason is progressive. 

We do not yet know the whole truth. 
What we are doing for the most part is 
moving along from moment to moment, 
stating the case as it appeals to us at the 
time, then passing on, ever in pursuit. To- 
day's statement is quickly outgrown. 

If every individual is a member of a whole 



170 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

constituted of mutually dependent members, 
the true understanding either of the indi- 
vidual or of society is in the light of this 
mutual dependence. 

One who is unaware of his dependence is 
ignorant of the real conditions of existence. 

Why assume that there is but one end 
towards which all things tend ? Why not 
several high ends ? 

We are learning by experience what the 
world is, what we are, what others are. Ex- 
perience is not yet complete. Complete 
experience can alone show what a thing 
completely is, what experience itself really 
is. 

To know a man you must know (1) whom 
he loves, that is, the type of persons; (2) 
how he expresses his love, what love is to 
him ; (3) his attitude and experience with 
respect to his sex nature ; (4) the type of 
his affection for, and his treatment of, 
women. 

One of the most important changes in 
human thought and conduct may be com- 



THOUGHTS 171 

pared to the growth in astronomy from the 
Ptolemaic system to the Copernican — the 
change from a local centre to the universal. 
This law of growth is illustrated throughout 
human history, in every department of human 
thought, both individual and racial. It is, in 
a word, the discovery of other people besides 
ourselves, a discovery of such moment that 
we must make it many times before we realise 
its true significance. 

In government, the change is from tyranny, 
aristocracy, monarchy, and other autocratic 
schemes to democracy — the government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. 
It is also the enlargement of petty states into 
a united whole. It is first the federation of 
tribes and towns, then the federation of races. 
At the outset it may lead to war, but it 
forthwith brings peace. In due course it will 
be the federation of allied nations, then the 
federation and co-operation of the world. 

In the family it marks the end of paternal 
despotism. It is the emancipation of woman, 
the granting of individuality to children, 



172 THE GKEATEST TRUTH 

the reign of love as opposed to the rule of 
authority. 

In the business world it is co-operation, 
the working together of allied interests, where 
once destructive competition reigned. 

When religion shakes off ecclesiastical 
authority and recognises the right of private 
judgment, it enters the same large world. 
In ethics it is the change from egoism to 
barbarism. In fact, the moral life begins 
with the shifting of the centre from self to 
humanity. 

In philosophy it is the casting off of sub- 
jectivism. In psychology it is the recogni- 
tion of the social self, and the dependence of 
the soul upon its larger environment. Even 
our crude, present-day psychology is an 
attempt in this direction. 

Next to the problem of evil, the most 
serious objection that is raised when one 
insists that the universe is a divine order 
is the argument from inequality, injustice, 
the existence of unsolved social problems. 
How is it possible, the critic demands, that 



THOUGHTS 173 

what you say is true, when social ills are so 
far from mending ? If the divine guidance 
be omnipresent, all-loving, why are so many 
millions of people deprived of freedom, op- 
portunity, and happiness ? Is not this the 
very essence of the problem of evil ? 

To talk about spiritual poise and faith 
does indeed seem absurd in the face of such 
unequal conditions. But there are many 
facts and principles to consider before one is 
in a position to understand these conditions. 

The real basis of life is spiritual. Man is 
a soul dwelling in eternity. The real self is 
unseen, and the highest end for which it 
exists is spiritual. Ideas stand before things. 
Character is above possessions. It is what 
we make out of life that avails. The circum- 
stance is always secondary. It is perspective 
that reveals reality. Perspective shows that 
there is compensation, justice, love, where 
there seemed to be unmitigated hardship, 
cruel injustice, and hatred. Oppressor and 
oppressed are both in the process of spiritual 
evolution. This we must see clearly, or all 



174 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

will be darkness. Everything depends on 
what we agree that life is for. If life were 
primarily for the flesh, there would indeed 
be reason to complain. Since it is for the 
soul, there are sure to be mysteries for us as 
long as we try to square all things by the 
standards of the flesh. 

The common contention of socialistic and 
many other critics of spiritual idealism, is 
that social change is impossible while the 
present economic order exists. But this is 
materialism. Materialism puts things before 
ideas. It rearranges things, changes circum- 
stance, in order that other ideas may prevail. 
From such a point of view man is not a soul, 
he is an economic tool. If this were true, 
not even God Himself could relieve man 
until capitalism had removed its terrible 
clutch. 

We must discover what principles are 
fundamentally implied in each instance. We 
shall be involved in hopeless duality unless 
we view all things from within. The real 
principle of growth is by change from within. 



THOUGHTS 175 

111 nature, progress does not begin in external 
arrangement, although external environment 
is a factor, but in inner quickening. 

All life begins at a point, in the cell or 
seed, and works outward by cell division and 
organic multiplication. External accident 
may mar this growth, and a favourable en- 
vironment is a necessary factor. But to bring 
about modifications and perpetuate them, it 
is necessary to begin at the centre of things. 
The same law is exemplified in the mental 
world. It is a thought of Emma Goldman 
which works in the mind of Czolgosz until 
it brings its terrible fruition, the killing of 
President M'Kinley. To reform that man or 
any other, you must somehow instil another 
idea into his mind. It would be useless to 
try to reform him by any other method. 
Your reformative idea is a carefully chosen 
product of your own mental evolution, it is 
the concentrated result of a vast deal of 
thinking. It will take root and grow like a 
seed in the soil. 

Nature everywhere teaches this law of 



176 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

centralisation amidst co-operation. The forces 
of the plant are concentrated in the seed 
which expands and grows from within. The 
cell is a miniature animal, and the fully 
developed individual is a complex result of a 
comparatively simple cell-process. The seed 
or cell is of little value by itself. Environ- 
ment is little more than ornamental without 
a seed. But combined with an environment 
the seed is a mighty power. In man, the 
most highly centralised product is the leader 
in the body politic or physical state. The 
brain must be fed, yet all the life of the body 
is dependent on the brain as the governmental 
centre. 

Not co-operation alone, nor centralisation, 
but co-operation through centralisation — this 
is nature's method. There must be a head 
to everything, but the head cannot stand 
alone. True harmony is attained when the 
head and the members work together. A 
strike among the members would be as 
absurd as a strike among heads. True 
understanding and adjustment among heads 



THOUGHTS 177 

comes slowly because of the many-sided 
wealth of their organic parts. Such harmony 
is the result of gradual evolution. Inequality 
is long a characteristic of this evolution. 

It is a fond saying that men were created 
or born ' free and equal/ but as we look 
abroad over the world we see that the facts 
belie the words. Man was born in ine- 
quality, reared in inequality, and inequality 
characterises the entire human race to-day. 
Inequality must then be one of the condi- 
tions of evolution, and we must seek the 
reasons for it by a closer study of evolution 
and human life. True social regeneration 
must take this factor into account. The 
more intelligent socialists frankly admit that 
what they want is equality of opportunity, 
not equality of material surroundings. But 
they are apt to stop here, instead of inquiring 
into the reasons for inequality. It is clear 
that what many of them want is an external re- 
adjustment on the basis of material equality. 

If ' created free and equal ' means anything, 
it must refer to spiritual equality. If it be 
M 



178 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

a question of equality before the law, or of 
freedom of opportunity, we are surely far 
from that, and must understand what we 
mean by these phrases before we can dedicate 
ourselves unqualifiedly to them. Whatever 
the theory, fact is better than fancy. If 
social equality be the ideal, let us understand 
existing conditions of inequality, that we may 
learn how things are tending on the evolu- 
tionary road. 

The reasons for inequality become apparent 
when, starting with the universal cause, 
ignorance, we trace out the long series of 
factors — inheritance, servitude, aristocracy, 
competition, grasping corporations, the rule 
of the strong, the wealthy and the corrupt. 
But possibly the entire point of view is 
wrong. There may be deep meaning in 
human inequality. It may not be wise that 
all men should> enjoy equality, if by that 
term we mean what is ordinarily understood. 

The earth is the home of all people. It 
belongs to all, not to the few. There is no 
doubt of that. Nor is there the slightest 



THOUGHTS 179 

doubt that many men are temporarily ex- 
ercising far too much power. There are 
thousands of unjust conditions which must 
gradually be changed. But is it probable 
that any degree of change would alter the 
conditions of our profoundest relationship 
with one another and with God ? 

Diversity of gifts implies diversity of 
mental and physical conditions. I may be 
suffering under circumstances which would 
demand perpetual outcry against God and 
society — if regarded from the point of view 
of the radical socialist. If these conditions 
enable me to do my work, what care I that I 
am deprived of a hundred advantages which 
pitying observers insist that I should enjoy ? 
The materially adverse may be the spiritually 
favourable. The crucial question is, Have 
we come to judgment so that we know our 
true place ? If so, the chances are that we 
shall sing the praises of the divine order. If 
not, we are likely to be perpetually dis- 
gruntled. There is a world-wide difference 
between the two attitudes. 



180 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

If the whole point of view of conventional 
belief in equality be wrong, the true state- 
ment is more probably somewhat as follows. 
Human society is an organism. One man is 
a poet, another an artisan. One is a scholar, 
another is a statesman. To one is given the 
privilege of quietly serving in an apparently 
menial relation. This man's virtues are not 
heralded abroad. Very few appreciate his 
services. To another is granted utmost pub- 
licity. Every one knows about his brilliant 
career as a government official, a general, or 
admiral. But few know the price he has to 
pay for popularity, few know how his virtues 
are enlarged upon and his vices minimised. 
In the final reckoning the humble servant 
may occupy as high a seat, possibly a higher 
one, while the world will say, How fortunate 
was this great official ! 

Here then is a crucial question. The crucial 
question therefore is, What is man ? Why are 
we here ? What is most worth while ? Shall 
we deal with man as a material being, or as a 
soul? What kind of wealth shall we strive for ? 



THOUGHTS 181 

Study the lives of a hundred different men 
and you will find a hundred different kinds 
of inequality. Each man has had a different 
experience. Each man has a different ambi- 
tion. On what basis are you going to 
organise those men — on the basis of a merely 
levelling social reform, brought about from the 
outside, or from the point of view of the 
divine government, wherein each may be 
fitted to do a certain work, capitalist and 
labourer, thinker and artisan, working to- 
gether as members of a social organism ? 
And by what method do you propose to 
bring about the equalisation, by the anarchism 
of merely human endeavour, or by the orderly 
process whereby nature builds for the ages ? 

These are questions as serious as they are 
profound, and upon the answer to them 
depends the choice between the socialism of 
danger and the socialism of safety. Very few 
socialists would pursue the anarchistic course 
if they faced these issues ; the trouble is that 
their analysis stops short of the discovery 
that nature has already revealed the true 



182 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

way. But now that anarchism is in greater 
disrepute we may look for a closer banding 
together of the socialists, many of whom will 
doubtless look upon their body as a per- 
secuted sect. Some will probably condemn 
the present social order more strenuously 
than ever. But to all who realise that 
socialism stands at the parting of the ways 
there is offered an opportunity to guard 
against the dangers outlined above. To 
all such we say : ' Come, let us reason to- 
gether/ Let us now sound this social dis- 
content, on the one hand, to see how far it is 
healthy ; and even more persistently analyse 
the conditions and causes of inequality. 

There are many obscure problems closely 
related to the latter inquiry. But the main 
issues call for the most searching thought, 
namely, the questions : Who and what are 
we ? What sort of equality do we want ? 
Shall we be the agents of materialism, or the 
servants of that higher ideal which values 
character above ducats and the products of 
the brain above those of the hand ? 



THOUGHTS 183 

When we consider these problems, it is 
well to remember that human evolution is 
not complete yet. We are just entering the 
social era, and there are ages of growth ahead 
of us. Almost without exception, those who 
are troubled over the social problem take a 
short-sighted view. They are either absorbed 
in the study of evil and so cannot see the 
good, they either lack insight into the divine 
order, or they have some plan of social reform 
to advocate which they insist shall be put 
into effect at once. Almost invariably the 
plan of reform involves the readjusting of 
the social mass from the outside. It is no 
wonder that the devotees of such schemes 
are repeatedly disappointed. 

The moral order is not founded on the 
petty judgments of men. The gods know 
the entire story and judge accordingly. Nor 
is the moral order limited to our time world. 
It is eternal, and there are abundant oppor- 
tunities for readjustment. He who adopts the 
eternal point of view must part company with 
the standards of conventional society and the 



184 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

daily press. If society is really a com- 
munity of immortal souls, no point of view 
is sound save that which beholds life as a 
whole. If the eternal republic of souls is 
ideally an organism, the first need is to 
acquaint men with that fact. Then we will 
see what else is needed. 

Membership in an organism implies that 
each soul has a function to fulfil, and func- 
tional activity implies limitation. Whether 
or not limitation be a ground of complaint 
depends upon how fully one understands the 
function. When a general ceases to try for) 
the position of orator, when the admiral 
sticks to his ship, and the labourer no longer 
aspires to be a poet, the entire universe takes 
on a new complexion. 

There is a vast difference between aspira- 
tions which are grounded on ability, and envy 
which is founded on air. If your ambition be 
in keeping w T ith your constitution, nothing in 
the wide world can keep you from its realisa- 
tion. If it be out of relation to your soul, no 
power under heaven can fulfil your desires. 



THOUGHTS 185 

Such is the divine order, and when you 
have once understood the law, all these 
questions of inequality are settled for all 
time. 

Since inequality of talent is natural and to 
some degree probably insurmountable, our 
revised universal proposition would seem to be 
this : every man and every nation shall enjoy 
the liberty of individuality, and the privileges 
granted shall be limited only by the limita- 
tions of talent. A nation shall be free to 
govern itself or to worship as it chooses, and 
no foreign nation shall have the right to 
seize its land, enslave or rule its people, or in 
any way interfere with the free expression 
of national genius. If the nation's political 
system, art, science, religion, or social con- 
duct falls below the standard of another so- 
called superior nation, so be it. No nation 
knows its needs so well as the nation in 
question. No foreign nation should assume 
the right of judgment or of dictation. God 
dwells there also. In due time He will 
declare Himself as befits this particular 



186 THE GKEATEST TRUTH 

nation's genius. Just as individuality is 
encouraged under the college elective system, 
so individuality should be stimulated and 
encouraged in nations — individuality in dress, 
art, architecture, language, custom^, and 
religion. Any nation which, by warfare or 
any other means, interferes with this national 
freedom is to that extent not only unethical 
but irreligious. 

That this is not the prevailing social ideal 
is evident from the grasping activities of 
imperialism, instigated by belief in the superi- 
ority of certain nations. The question is, 
How shall we persuade the nations to adopt 
the social policy of ' Live and let live ? ' 

As all reform begins with man, and not 
with men, the first essential is individual 
thought. It is easy to convince individuals 
that they should reverence and manifest 
individuality. This idea appeals to them. 
It pleases them to be told that they possess 
superior talents. But usually they fail to 
see that they can be truly free only so far* as 
they confer freedom. 



THOUGHTS 187 

The vital problem is, How shall we per- 
suade the individual to become a social 
factor, an agent for the grand ideal of social 
freedom, the attainment of which means not 
only the emancipation of one's environing 
society, but also national freedom ? 

The natural history of the individual is so 
nearly typical of the natural history of 
society that, having attained a measure of 
freedom, one may very well study one's 
experience to learn its laws, then apply these 
to mankind at large. Individual liberty 
begins when man begins to think, when he 
discovers ideal freedom. Without antagonism, 
therefore, begin to conduct yourself among 
men, and so express yourself as to stimulate 
freedom of thought. Let your educational 
work be calculated primarily to encourage 
individual thinking. The habit once founded, 
you may lead men on so skilfully that, before 
they are aware, they will become interested 
in those principles whose application means 
social freedom. 

Do not chant the horrors of the wrongs to 



188 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

be righted, but gradually arouse in men that 
higher sense which will lead them logically 
and spontaneously to the discovery of the 
social ideal. Inculcate tolerance by being 
tolerant yourself. Show your readiness to 
hear another's point of view. Avoid all 
sectarian feeling. Do not be limited by 
local organisations, but enlarge and become 
universal. Not c My country, right or wrong/ 
should be your toast, but e My country, one 
among many, which I serve only so far as it 
makes for liberty/ 

The sentiment of superiority, doubtless, has 
much to do with the present social status. 
But the only truly superior person is one 
who manifests the Spirit. The superiority 
of physical force, of material wealth, and 
showy aristocracy, must give way before the 
superiority of love, brotherhood, and the 
fellowship of the Spirit. 



CHAPTEE XIX 

PREJUDICE 

There are few discoveries in regard to the 
human mind of more consequence than the 
revelation which shows the power of pre- 
judice. Some might say that it is more 
important to become aware of the power of 
fear, or to awaken to the influence and scope 
of suggestion. But oftentimes a man's pre- 
judices are far more deeply rooted than his 
fears, and to show him the power of sugges- 
tion you must show him that his life is 
narrowed by his preconceptions. One may 
be aware of fear and may be valiantly at 
work to overcome it, but the peculiarity of a 
prejudice is that one is unconscious of it. To 
discover that one is prejudiced is forthwith 
to see that in the respect in question one 
stands absolutely in one's own light. 

189 



190 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Probably every one knows people whose 
prejudices are so deep-rooted that it is 
apparently futile to allude to any subject in 
which the prejudices are closely involved. 
One sees that something profound must touch 
these victims of their own beliefs, but that 
this something must come from another 
source. For usually the most prejudiced 
people we know are friends or members of 
our own household, and hence we are unable 
to utter the freeing word which a prophet from 
another household must sometime declare. To 
know that a person is profoundly prejudiced 
is to know the person in question rather 
better than an outsider could know him. To 
possess such knowledge is also to be able to 
say illuminating things. But how seldom is 
the opportunity granted. In many cases the 
only resource is to act as if the friend's pre- 
judice did not exist, and this is no small 
accomplishment. 

A typical case of extreme prejudice is that 
of the mother whose child is interested in 
some one of the opposite sex and who believes 



PREJUDICE 191 

that the person in question has a pernicious 
influence over her child. The assumption 
often is that all blame is to be cast upon the 
other; one's own child is spotless. Under 
such circumstances a mother can sometimes 
be cold, distant, one-sided, to the verge of 
heartlessness. But the onlooker knows that 
no social relationship of any sort ever exists 
without the causal participation of two or 
more parties. In the world of actual life 
people are not sharply divided into villains 
and angels. Your alleged villain is in many 
respects as good as you are. The fact that 
there is a tie of blood between you and your 
child, or between you and your brother or 
sister, is no guarantee that either partner to 
the relationship is any better than the first 
man you meet on the street. 

Sometimes one has an opportunity to 
observe prejudices in the making. The writer 
once brought two persons together with the 
greatest expectations. On account of the 
community of interest between them he 
thought there would be great eagerness to 



192 THE GREATEST TKUTH 

co-operate in a work in which he, too, was 
deeply concerned. But it happened that each 
saw in the other the trait of character in 
which the observer in question was most at 
fault. Consequently all that the one could 
see in the other was the other's glaring 
limitations. As a result, each took a violent 
prejudice against the other, a prejudice so 
violent that it is doubtful if anything that 
may ever occur in this life will serve to 
remove it. Each assumes — and never ques- 
tions the assumption — that he knows perfectly 
what the other is. Each is mistaken. But 
no argument can remove a prejudice of that 
kind. Experience must do it. 

Oddly enough, one can be on the best terms 
with people who do not care for each other 
in the least. Some persons have the most 
surprising facility for the discovery of the 
weakest side of people they meet. Having 
found another's weakness there seems to be 
nothing more to say or do. Even Emerson 
says that a man ceases to interest us when 
his limitations are seer On the contrary, 



PREJUDICE 193 

we really begin to know people, we really 
discover reasons for helping and loving them, 
when we learn their limitations. One ought 
to be as free to admit that one's mother or one's 
brother is prejudiced as to attribute prejudice 
to a stranger. To discern the prejudice, and 
yet remain loyal to the ideal for which the 
loved one is striving, is indeed to show that 
one really loves. It is a false sense of loyalty 
which leads us to defend some people merely 
because they are near and dear, whatever 
their attitude may be. 

Again, prejudice may relate to a man's 
beliefs. Here is my friend, for example, who 
is so bent in one direction that he is blind to 
the only consideration which would make it 
possible for him to understand his chosen 
belief. Every item that tends to confirm his 
belief he quickly seizes upon. His mind is 
so turned against those who do not agree 
with him that he is unable to see any truth 
in their position. Hence he tacitly assumes 
that in that respect they are wrong while 
he is entirely in the right. But this is once 

N 



194 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

more to be as narrow as the fond mother who 
deems her child perfect. No point of view 
is wholly true. No error is entirely false. 
Your favourite doctrine must be supplemented 
by a theory that is not a favourite with you 
or you will possess, not a philosophy, but a 
set of prejudices. 

It is easy to apply epithets and to classify 
beliefs under the head of some opprobrious 
term. But to penetrate behind the epithet is 
to find that human nature is still the same 
the world over. I may think I have rightly 
pigeon-holed a man when I set him down as 
a 'materialist' — simply because he does not 
chance to hold my peculiar views — but the 
probability is that the other man is in 
possession of certain facts of which I am 
ignorant. It is seriously to be questioned 
whether there exists the person to whom we 
think we refer when we condemn another as 
' atheist/ or ' infidel/ or ' materialist.' 

How shall we become aware of our pre- 
judices ? A good way to begin is to adopt a 
few general principles which tend to under- 



PREJUDICE 195 

mine all prejudices. For example, it is 
indisputable that everybody is human, hence 
that every one has two natures in him. If 
that is the case, the chances are that alongside 
of either the virtue we admire or the vice 
we condemn there is an opposing principle at 
work. To begin to know a man is to learn 
how he stands with regard to this immemorial 
struggle. If we know his wrestlings with his 
lower nature the probabilities are that we 
will not condemn. If we have come to 
consciousness in regard to the same conflict 
within ourselves we are hardly in a position 
to cast the first stone at anybody, and pre- 
judice is casting stones ; it is assuming that I 
am a little better than you are. Now, to 
begin to understand oneself is unwittingly to 
deprive one's prejudices of their very life. 
Prejudice springs from ignorance. Begin to 
inform yourself and you will be humiliated 
fast enough. 

The fact that one adopts a new faith is no 
guarantee that one has left prejudice behind. 
The violent partisan is always prejudiced, and 



196 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

it is difficult to be even a follower of a cult, 
a disciple of a master, without being pre- 
judiced, for instance, against those who do 
not agree with one's master. It seems to 
follow that the only way to be unprejudiced 
is to be a truth-seeker. But this is a hard 
saying, for truth is unpopular. People like 
partisans and dread the impartial critic. 
What would become of all the societies for 
which people are for ever working to raise 
money, if society in general were to become 
unprejudiced ? The only stock in trade the 
majority of theorists possess is their peculiar 
set of prejudices, and of course their followers 
must stand by them. On the other hand, 
what a delight it is to be free to follow truth 
wherever it may lead, even though it involves 
the sundering of life- long intellectual ties ! 
To be unprejudiced is to be free. Let any 
one who would discover his prejudices, then, 
embark on a voyage in quest of truth, bearing 
in mind the saying of a certain wise man, 
' Every man I meet is my master in some 
respect, in that I learn of him.' 



CHAPTER XX 

WHAT IS THE HIGHER LIFE? 

The term ' higher ' is so often understood to 
imply an invidious distinction, as if my way 
were better than yours, that it is necessary 
at the outset to define the word as here used. 
To insist that my ways are not your ways, 
would indeed be to raise a barrier between us. 
But to maintain that there is a higher point 
of view than that of physical sensation, and a 
higher mode of life than the life of the flesh, 
is to draw the distinction which in all ages 
has characterised devotees of the Spirit. It 
by no means follows that our natural life is 
condemned. Nor need the distinction involve 
a theory of the supernatural. The appeal is 
to the soul. Since man is far more than a 
creature of flesh and blood; it behooves him to 
live as a spiritual being should. There is a 

197 



198 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

way of living which subordinates the flesh to 
the spirit. There is another way of thinking 
which puts matter first. All through the 
ages there have been those who tried to 
explain the higher, nobler nature of -man by 
the lower. All through the ages there have 
been others who have insisted that the darker, 
external facts of life are alone explicable in 
terms of the ideals, the nobler ends and 
values to be achieved through the struggle 
from lower to higher. An entire philosophy 
of the reality and worth of life is implied in 
each of these attitudes. 

Eecent devotees of the point of view which 
regards the course of life from the upper rather 
than from the under side, have gone one step 
farther than many of the early partisans of 
idealism. Tor they insist that life shall not 
only be regarded in the light of spiritual 
ideals, but that each man shall have a 
practical way of realising such ideals in all 
the details of daily conduct, even in sickness 
and in sorrow. For it is one thing to possess 
a philosophy which interprets experience in 



WHAT IS THE HIGHER LIFE? 199 

idealistic terms, and another to attain a 
higher attitude, and thereby show that one 
believes the philosophy true. Hence, conduct 
is the supreme test. So to live as to quicken 
others, because one really possesses the Spirit, 
is to give the best proof that there is a higher 
life. To have a resource which is practically 
fruitful in the moment of need, is to bear 
witness that there really is a higher power. 
Hence it is of more import what springs from 
the dynamic attitude than by what line of 
argument one supports the point of view. 

As here used, the term ( higher ' therefore 
refers to a very practical way of taking life 
in which emphasis is placed first of all on 
experience of a certain type. We all know 
what it is to have ' moods/ and we are well 
aware that consciousness of physical sensation 
sometimes masters us. On the other hand, 
we are equally well acquainted with quicken- 
ing mental states which exalt the mind above 
pain, and triumph over our fears and tempta- 
tions. But we are not able at will to place 
the mind in a triumphant mood. Ordinarily, 



200 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

we are at the mercy of our shifting feelings 
and thoughts. ' Born to mastery/ as we 
sometimes say, we are for the most part mere 
observers of this ceaseless interplay. Life is 
a succession of contrasts, and, withal, of con- 
flicts. If we could only be true to the best 
we know, if we could practise what we preach, 
there would be nought to ask. But we are 
constrained to confess with Emerson, f Our 
faith comes in moments, our vice is habitual/ 
This is not our own arrangement. We are eager 
enough to realise our ideals. The fact that 
we go to church again and again to hear the 
same teachings ; that we read over and over 
the same books, shows how deeply in earnest 
we are. But most of us are forced to confess 
that we do not know how to break free from 
this ceaseless round, and rise into the attitude 
of triumph. 

It is a great point in our favour, however, 
when we are able to classify all our moods, 
impulses, and thoughts as lower or higher. 
In the one set of mental states we feel that 
we are not quite ourselves. We are swept 



WHAT IS THE HIGHER LIFE? 201 

along by emotion, by fear or weakening 
doubt. We stoop to contemptible things, we 
are guilty of hatred, of bitterness and antagon- 
ism — in a word, we are selfish. In the other 
round of mental states we stand, as it were, 
erect. Love fills the heart ; pity and sym- 
pathy prompt us. We are at peace with the 
world. We are free. 

Now, a large part of our condemnation of 
friend and sinner alike is based on the fact 
that we judge others by their lower moods 
and tendencies, not by their higher. When 
we condemn ourselves it is not the larger, 
fuller self we condemn. We feel instinctively 
that the real self is the son of God. Never 
is it actually tempted. Never does it really 
doubt. Nor is it ever ill. Hence righteous 
judgment is insight into the higher order of 
things for which we really live. The higher 
life is the righteous life, and we begin to 
live it in earnest when we take into account 
first of all our real natures as sons of God. 

To change the object of our judgments 
from surfaces to realities, from lower to 



202 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

higher, is to begin to regard life from the 
point of view of progress, the ideal outcome 
of things, instead of from the standpoint of 
their birth-pains. Our misjudgments are 
chiefly due to the fact that we mistake the 
evolutionary process for the main thing, 
whereas it is only a means to an end. To 
call a man a sinner without qualification is 
to disgrace one's self. To treat a man as if 
he were merely a body is to insult him. A 
man is to be recognised for what he would be. 
No man is either by birth, by training, or as 
a result of environment, inherently evil. 
There may be wellnigh incurable criminals, 
who must be kept in strictest confinement; 
but it is not the soul that makes them so, 
and every man should be regarded as a 
soul. 

To accept the point of view of evolution 
as here outlined, is to place the foremost 
emphasis on ideals, hence on methods for the 
realisation of ideals. If a man is tending 
toward the ideal, we must recognise that 
element in him, think of him chiefly in that 



WHAT IS THE HIGHER LIFE? 203 

connection, call that element out. He who 
tries to regard all men from the standpoint of 
what they would be, finds that he has much 
to overcome. Hence the higher life begins at 
home. 

All this involves the discovery of the 
resources of the inner world. It has been 
found by actual experience that to put oneself 
into the attitude of recognition of the higher 
order of things is to feel a sense of superior 
power. Simply to endeavour to regain the 
higher level, when one has sunk once more 
into the lower, is to be aware of an increas- 
ing consciousness of freedom, as if one were 
entering another world. Hence it is the 
belief of devotees of the higher life — defined 
in the practical sense now under considera- 
tion — that the soul is in actual dynamic 
relations with a superior order of things. 
They do not call this ' supernatural/ for they 
believe that all natural things exist for the 
sake of spiritual purposes. Ultimately speak- 
ing, it is all one order of existence. It is an 
error to sunder the natural from the spiritual. 



204 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

It is the illusions of the lower level of con- 
sciousness that cut us off from resources of 
the higher order. In his rightful estate, man 
is a spiritual being. The whole meaning of 
his long evolution is his full development as 
a son of God. Hence, there is no condemna- 
tion of the lower, nor of the people who deem 
it the higher. The long evolution is necessary 
to bring man to consciousness. 

To turn from the thought of the process to 
the thought of its goal is to draw the attention, 
with its accompanying power, away from the 
nervous wear and tear of life, and refresh 
one's soul. Ideals have power, and not alone 
because they elevate the thought, but because 
our conduct is affected by them. Man is 
primarily an active being. Hence, to reform 
him, you must give him a goal of action. To 
help him in the most practical way is to 
show him how he may put himself into an 
attitude of receptivity to higher power, and 
how to adjust himself to the regenerative 
influences of that quickening life. 

This the devotees of the higher life claim 



WHAT IS THE HIGHER LIFE? 205 

bo do. They believe in the power of the 
spirit over the flesh, over the mind, and over 
all the influences that hold a man on the 
lower levels of life. Hence, freedom is their 
watchword. To become free, a man must 
know who he is. He must stand up in the 
power of his spiritual might, and enjoy the 
blessings that are prepared for the sons of 
God. Those blessings are all about us. We 
are immortal spirits now. We live in the 
eternal spiritual world. There is nothing to 
separate us from the power and love and 
wisdom of God. God is here. Guidance is 
for each and all. Our part is to be receptive, 
ready, alert, expectant. Everything tends 
toward this high spiritual end. It is for us 
to awaken and move with the current of 
things. 



CHAPTER XXI 

GOD IS LOVE 

If one were asked to single out the word 
which above all others stands for the practical 
essence of the Christian faith, surely that 
word would be love. To love God with all 
one's mind and heart, to love one's neighbour 
as oneself — this is to realise in spirit and 
in conduct the gospel whose intent was not 
to destroy, but to fulfil. Likewise to declare 
that ' God is Love, 5 is to utter in one sentence 
the essence of Christian theism. To know 
that God is the Father, and that He above all 
is Love, is to apprehend the central principle 
of His relationship to us. Yet if no Christian 
word is more significant, none is more often 
used in a merely general sense. We believe, 
and we repeat, that God is Love. But how 
often do we consider in detail precisely what 



GOD IS LOVE 207 

this great utterance means ? I do not merely 
reiterate the statement to-day ; I ask you to 
consider with me some of its implications. 

Much light is given us by the beloved 
disciple who made this fundamental state- 
ment. It is because of the Fathers love that 
we are what we are, on account of that love 
that Jesus was sent, and love is said to be 
the test of all our life, as well as the basis of 
all true knowledge. ' Behold what manner of 
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that 
we should be called children of God. . . . For 
this is the message which ye heard from the 
beginning, that we should love one another. 
... He that loveth not abideth in death. . . . 
Hereby know we love because he laid down 
his life for us. . . . Love is of God; and 
every one that loveth is begotten of God, and 
knoweth God/ 

If God is Love, and it is because of love 
that God is made manifest as He is, if love is 
the principle of eternal life, and it is for that 
life that we exist, every event and all condi- 
tions should be understood in relation to love ; 



208 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

everything has been brought forth in love ; 
everything is for love ; love is the central 
life of all things ; the universe is a cosmos of 
love ; it is founded in and sustained by love. 
The divine purpose springs from the divine 
love; the fulness of the divine love is the 
reason for being of the universe ; the universe 
of beings and things was needed that the 
divine love might be fulfilled, be made com- 
plete. The central principle of the universe 
is the life whose nature is to proceed forth, 
to become universal ; hence to proceed from 
the one to the many, then unite the many in 
unity of purpose, oneness of life and spirit. 

What does this signify ? How can it be ? 
First, let us recognise that we know not what 
love is, if we judge by what is ordinarily 
called by that name. It seems difficult to 
understand how God can be Love, even if we 
take our clue from the noblest affections in 
human life. For we think of love as a spirit 
or life, flowing, as it were, from some one, or 
uniting two or more beings ; and we usually 
insist that love is a kind of mystery and is 



GOD IS LOVE 209 

not to be intellectually apprehended. There 
is a sense in which this belief is well founded. 
Love is rather to be felt than analytically- 
known. At its best, human love is un- 
doubtedly an experience known to two, and 
hence is for ever sacred. Love belongs to the 
world of appreciation rather than to the world 
of description ; it is for the poets rather than 
for the men of science to tell us its reality. 
Love is of persons and for persons. As a 
reality, it is essentially incommunicable ; each 
must know for himself, and each must know 
by being in love, not merely by doing deeds 
of love or meditating upon its gentle ways, 
surely not by ■ falling in love/ But it is one 
of the tests of love that it proceeds from the 
individual to the universal. It may, indeed, 
be true that to possess the secret of love one 
must love devotedly. Love gives to persons 
and receives from persons in a way which 
love finds for itself. But that is no reason 
for ceasing to reflect upon the nature of love 
when, passing beyond the sacred relationship 
which only two may know, it shares its 




210 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

blessings with people far and near, and gives 
the clue to man's total life. 

Among other tests of the coming of genuine 
love, John assures us that we love not 'in 
word, neither with the tongue ; but in deed 
and truth.' We no longer love the world as 
if it were a finality in itself, for the world of 
surfaces, and 'the lusts thereof passeth away'; 
it is he who ' doeth the will of God ' who 
possesses the abiding principle. He who is 
compassionate has the love of God abiding in 
him. If we have ceased to hate our fellow- 
men, and ceased to fear, we may know that 
love has come. But above all, so far as the 
human part is concerned, love is a state or 
spirit in which we abide, it is a principle of 
permanence, of eternal life. ' He that abideth 
in love abideth in God, and God abideth in 
him/ While, then, in the last analysis, ' we 
love because He first loved us/ God's love is 
not made perfect in us until we love one 
another, until we really love one another as a 
habit of life. Love is known both by the fact 
that we love one another, and by the fact that 



GOD TS LOVE 211 

God loves us. It is known by the new birth, 
for he who loves is literally born of God. 
Finally, it is known as a principle of life. 
If we love ' we know that we have passed 
out of death into life/ The issue is very 
sharply drawn, ' He that loveth not abideth 
in death/ 

With the coming of the divine love, then, 
a certain life enters into us. Hereby ' we 
know that we are of the truth/ Our heart no 
longer condemns us. We abide in a certain 
spirit, we lead a certain mode of life. We 
not only possess, and are possessed by the 
power of love as a principle of life and the 
central guide in all conduct, but we know 
truth from error. Granted that we are able 
to meet the tests, we may have the ' boldness ' 
of which John speaks. Since, then, love is 
the principle of knowledge in us, we may 
with entire confidence proceed to make ex- 
plicit the implications of the basic statement, 
* God is Love/ well knowing that there is no 
other ultimate reality. 

Still following the clues which our human 



212 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

life gives us, we may declare that, since ' God 
is Love/ love is in very truth, as Swedenborg 
says, ' the life of man.' If man springs from 
the divine love, exists for and because of that 
love, man is to be understood from love if he 
is to be understood at all. If love in man is 
the essence of man, the divine purpose in 
him, his life is not of himself alone but is of 
or from God, all powers and faculties within 
him become intelligible in the light of the 
divine-human love-relation. Man, we may 
say, is meant to manifest love, to live for 
love, to lead a life of love. His central ideal 
should then be to love God and His cosmos 
of love, to love man and the world of men. 
But to make love in this fundamental sense 
the principle of life and thought is constantly 
to consider how to apply in detail that which 
is in the most general sense the essence of life. 
Wherever we begin, the result is the same. 
It is love itself that prompts us either to 
reveal or to understand love. To know man 
better is to know God the more. To consider 
how God can be Love is to reflect upon the 



GOD IS LOVE 213 

essential nature of man. We possess the 
essence, we are that essence, hence it is 
possible to understand it. Unless love 
existed, knowledge would not be possible. 
Unless God already possessed us, unless we 
already possessed God, the essence which we 
would know, it would not be possible for us 
to proceed to the knowledge of it. Love is 
the implicit essence ; knowledge the explicit- 
ness of that essence. 

Now, in man we already know that as he 
wills so he acts. Where the heart is, there 
the thought is centred. What we con- 
tinuously love, we as constantly seek. We 
pursue truth only because we love it. To 
love truth is to will that we possess it, to put 
ourselves in the attitude to win it. In 
general, to know what man loves, that is, 
what man wills, is to know his principle of 
action, to know what he is. You may aid 
him to carry out his purpose, you may bring 
forward arguments that support his will, but 
you cannot coerce him to love. To touch him 
more profoundly, you must love him more ; 



214 THE GREATEST TEUTH 

there is no other direct way to appeal to the 
will of man. But granted a change of heart, 
a change of thought naturally follows. Hence 
it is that all along the course of man's life 
everything that shows what man loves, what 
he wills, shows what he is. To know what 
his love is grounded in, is to know how love 
can be his very life. Now, obviously, his 
love springs from something ; it is the love of 
something by something. We have entire 
right, then, to say that the self or the soul in 
man is primarily the basis of love ; the soul 
is a being essentially constituted to love. 

Carrying out the same line of reasoning 
with regard to God, we say that the funda- 
mental statement, God is Love, impliesthat 
whatever else God is He is the being whose 
essence is Love. There must be the divine 
Being, since there is the divine Love. In 
knowing that God is Love, we already know 
somewhat concerning the divine Being. Since 
it is the very essence of that love to send 
itself forth into the universe, whatever we 
know of the universe is already knowledge of 



GOD IS LOVE 215 

the divine Love, hence of the divine Being. 
If God is Love, He is very much more. 
Hence we may consider what follows from 
the statement that He is Love. 

Since the universe springs from love, and 
exists for love's sake, and since the divine 
love is eternal, the universe is a system, an 
order. Furthermore, its order is its beauty ; 
the divine love is beautiful. The divine love, 
then, is not a vague spirit, proceeding forth 
at random. Love is for the sake of the 
highest good of all in the long-run ; hence it 
is wise, involves purpose, adaptation. Love 
is good, the cosmos of love exists for the good, 
is founded in the divine goodness. Hence 
we may enlarge our statement by saying, God 
is Good God is Reason, Wisdom. The divine 
love, then, springs from the divine mind, as 
well as from the divine heart; love is the 
motive and the end, wisdom is the means 
and the guiding principle. The divine order 
of the universe is founded on the divine 
reason, the orderly character of God. To 
know the whys and wherefores of the universe 



216 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

is therefore to know the divine love, since 
that love is through and through wise ; the 
order of the divine goodness and the divine 
love is likewise the order of the divine 
wisdom, the divine reason; the goodness of 
the divine love is the goodness of reason, the 
reason of the divine love is the divine beauty. 
Love, beauty, goodness and reason are all 
clues to the divine nature. Whatever attri- 
bute we select, if we make clear our ultimate 
meaning, we include all the others. 
""" Since everything in the universe is ordered 
according to the wisdom of the divine love, it 
behooves us to study everything in its order, 
its place, degree and purpose. Hence we 
should not merely admire, adore, worship ; we 
should also seek to understand, taking our 
clue from the central significance of the divine 
love. 

Love, that is, contemplation, appreciation, 
comes first in order ; then comes reflection 
upon the reason and use of that which we 
love. Love is the clue to all truth, but it is 
thought which brings out the details. The 



GOD IS LOVE 217 

life of reason in us is as surely divine as the 
life of love. Hence to love in the divine 
sense of the word is not merely to open wide 
the heart, but to open wide the mind. The 
divine love, I repeat, is not vague, but exists 
for purposes, is rational. And so love in the 
larger sense is for many ends ; it is love of 
God, love of persons, love of truth, love of 
beauty, love of goodness ; and the rational 
life of love is life for all of these. 

That love has a way, a law, an order, is a 
familiar theme. But we are apt to stop with 
the mere belief. If love's way is the way of 
divine goodness, divine beauty, and the divine 
wisdom, we have three definite clues. We 
never possess love in its fulness until we 
make explicit its system, its law, and purpose. 
First, however, we should seek the rhythms 
of love's way, its tendencies and leadings, its 
immanent life. Love's way is indeed mys- 
terious at first ; for it brings tribulation and 
pain, it tests our faith, and often we are sore 
afraid. But we must follow its leadings if we 
would know its law ; ' not my way but Thine,' 



218 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

is always the prayer of the one who would 
really win love. But since love springs from 
reason, love's course is consistent, and all its 
leadings make for the same high end. In 
other words, love always knows the way. Love 
is wisdom ; it is not blind. 

Love grants freedom to all, freedom to 
wander and to disobey ; hence the vicissitudes 
of human experience. Man often interferes 
with the divine love, rebels, hence man has 
many struggles. But once more it is love's 
way which shows us how to return from our 
selfish wanderings. The divine love wills to be 
complete in us, is made perfect through these 
our wanderings, forgives until seventy times 
seven, forgives all save that which cannot 
be forgiven. For with all love's power one 
thing is demanded of us, namely, that we 
become receptive. 

Love stirs within us in manifold ways, and 
usually we misunderstand. But all love is 
good, and is meant for our good ; it is incum- 
bent upon us to know love's ends, orders, and 
degrees, that we may see the good of every- 



GOD IS LOVE 219 

thing in its place. The divine love prompts 
us, for example, to love our fellows. This 
was meant to be disinterested, but is often 
turned into selfish affection. Again, the 
power of reason in us was meant to reveal the 
meaning, the wisdom of divine love. But we 
forget the intimate connection between love 
and wisdom, and make the intellect an end 
in itself. Hence has come about the strange 
belief that God cannot be known through 
reason. But I have tried to show that that 
is the only way He can be known, provided 
we already possess His love in our heart. 

8 God is greater than our heart,' says John. 
But he also assures us that if our heart con- 
demn us not, we indeed apprehend God, and 
God is Love. c No man hath seen God at 
any time.' Yet if we love one another we 
possess that which we cannot see, we are sure 
that ■ God abideth in us/ that His ' love is 
perfected in us.' ' Hereby we know that we 
abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath 
given us of His spirit.' Thus every time we 
meet an obstacle when we seek God by 



220 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

another channel, we succeed by following the 
clues of love. To possess the spirit which He 
has given us is to have the clue to all reality, 
all truth. God is indeed Love, because He is 
all these other qualities besides, and we know 
Him in very truth when we worship Him not 
only in spirit, but in truth, as beauty, good- 
ness, and reason. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE POWER OF TRUTH 

w Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free/ 

Let us once again consider the truth which 
shall confer freedom upon all mankind, once 
again let us remind ourselves that man shall 
find it by first seeking the righteousness and 
the Kingdom of God. It is long ere we see 
that, having found the Kingdom, all things 
shall be made intelligible in relation to this 
primal truth ; it is long ere we see the 
practical power of this great truth. In reality 
the great discovery involves, first, an experi- 
ence, then a mode of life, and finally a prin- 
ciple of thought. Hence there are a number 
of aspects to the truth which Jesus enunciated. 

1. First, Jesus called upon all men to 
repent/ for the Kingdom was at hand. 



222 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Now, the word ' repent ' in the Greek means 
a second thought, to change one's mind on 
reflection. Men had grown oblivious of God. 
They were still sons of God. The love of 
God is perfect, and no soul is ever really 
separated from the Father. Even when the 
Father is denied, He is intimately present; 
for He watcheth even over the sparrows. 
Therefore the separation from the Father was 
not on the Godward side ; it was in the con- 
sciousness of man, who had forgotten. Jesus 
accordingly calls on man to reflect, to consider 
his relationship to God. For the Kingdom 
' is within you/ It is ' at hand.' It is not 
an external dominion, coming in gorgeous 
splendour, but is invisible. It cometh not 
with observation. It dwells in the heart. 
Every man who shall turn within in child- 
like trust will find that everything has been 
provided. 

In other words, the Kingdom of God is, as 
we would say, the system of the universe with 
which every man is intimately related. The 
universe is a divine order, it exists for a 



THE POWER OF TKUTH 223 

supremely wise purpose. 'All things work 
together/ and the Father 'worketh hitherto' 
and worketh unceasingly, now and henceforth. 
There is nothing that exists outside of the 
divine order, nothing without divine guidance. 
The system, the watchfulness is unbroken, 
whether man knows it or not. When man 
becomes so absorbed in worldly pursuits that 
he forgets the divine care, a prophet is needed 
to call him to repentance — that is, to con- 
sciousness. Jesus came as the prophet of 
prophets, the one who above all others has 
made clear the law by living the life of the 
Spirit. 

2. The second great principle in the teach- 
ing of Jesus is made clear when He says : 
' Not my will, but Thine be done.' He was 
willing to follow this principle to the bitter 
end, even to undergo the sufferings of the 
cross. Thus His conduct taught even more 
than His precepts. By fidelity of conduct He 
brought the powers of His three marvellous 
years of ministry to a centre, a supreme 
height, from whence His spirit went forth, 



224 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

and has been going forth into the world 
ever since. 

The saying of Jesus, ' Not my will, but 
Thine/ implies that Jesus believed in the 
universality of the divine will as the central- 
ising power ; the divine will makes possible 
the unity of the world system. Man's mistake 
is in supposing that he is independent of this 
will, that he can be something of and by 
himself. This is in a sense ' the fall of man.' 
Here is the basis of man's sin and misery. 
The great truth which sets him free is the 
discovery of the facts of his spiritual life as 
a son of God. To reflect, to see that he is 
neught by himself, but is dependent, limited, 
organic, is to discover the true way of salva- 
tion, namely, to adjust himself to the Father's 
will. That will is expressed many-sidedly. As 
a many-sided being, man must become every 
whit whole, every whit beautiful, both in the 
aesthetic and in the moral sense. When he 
shall become beautiful, he shall see and know 
and feel the wholeness of the divine order, 
shall be free from the trammels of ignorance. 



THE POWER OF TRUTH 225 

This is expounding the words of Jesus in 
rather modern words, tinctured by Greek 
thought ; but it seems justifiable to interpret 
modern Christian life in this more aesthetic 
sense. 

He who would obey the Father's will must 
then adjust himself to that will in the uni- 
versal sense. The divine will does not apply 
to the subjective life alone. Nor is it alone 
an affair of the external life. It is at once 
inner and outer, individual and social. It is 
a law of the total spiritual order. Every- 
thing is related to everything else through the 
divine will — God regarded as immanent in 
action. Man, when living by the spirit, is 
adjusted to the divine will. Jesus also as- 
sures us that ' he that loseth his life shall find 
it.' To obey the divine will is not then to 
sacrifice individuality. By this obedience, this 
consecration, man at last learns how to be a 
true individual, in relation, not in isolation. 
Sin, selfishness, is exclusiveness^ To be free 
from sin, man must pass beyond the bounds 
of his ego, and view himself in the light of 
p 



226 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

his social relationships, his organic place in 
the divine order. Then he shall truly find 
himself. Then shall he be truly free, for 
freedom is enjoyed in certain relations ; it is 
not existent by itself, ' in the air/ apart from 
the moral order. 

3. Jesus did not, then, limit the acceptance 
of the Kingdom to the comparatively small 
department of man's life sometimes termed 
' man's sinful nature.' He came to reveal 
the Kingdom as a universal dominion of 
righteousness. He showed that He meant 
what He said by healing the people of their 
diseases and casting out their evil spirits. 
Its application even to the body of man was 
convincing evidence that the law of the 
Kingdom was as truly objective as subjective, 
as truly physical as what some Christians 
have exclusively called ' spiritual.' To deny 
the external, to deem it ' low ' or ' evil ' is 
therefore to fail to this extent to be a Chris- 
tian. The Christianity of Jesus applied to 
the whole man ; Jesus made no exception. 
If customs and terms have changed since His 



THE POWER OF TRUTH 227 

time, if to state His teaching in philosophical 
terms is in a sense to inculcate what He did 
not as explicitly teach, still no exposition of 
His wisdom seems to be complete which fails 
to bring out this many-sided universality as a 
legitimate inference from the principles He 
laid down. 

Jesus came, then, to bring certain great 
truths 'to light.' He came to assure men 
that they are immortal souls in the universal 
Kingdom of the Father ; not mere creatures 
of physical circumstance. He dwelt in the 
spiritual Kingdom, as an eternal, not alone 
as a temporal order. Hence He regarded all 
things in the light of this higher relationship. 
One might say that He of all men most clearly 
saw things in this visible world as they really 
are. His example shows that it is not enough 
merely to know the law ; one must be, one 
must accomplish. There is no abstract pro- 
cess by which one may solve the riddles of 
life. Man must first obey the law before he 
shall fully know it. Being, in the fuller 
sense, is a clue to knowing. To live, to ex- 



228 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

press, is to prove that we have attained. To 
serve is more fully to attain. To attain is 
more fully to know. 

Having been born in ignorance of these 
great truths, and being inclined to forget them 
even when they have been partly revealed, 
man, of course, needed to be taught ( the way, 
the truth, and the life.' 

The coming of Jesus seems to have been 
in ' the fitness of time,' when a few men were 
sufficiently enlightened to receive the blessed 
message and report it to the world. Jesus 
came to recall mankind to the fact that the 
true Father is the God of love. God needs no 
sacrifice ; He demands no sacrifice ; He is not 
angry. He is Spirit, and they that worship 
Him must worship in spirit and in truth. 

There are many paths pursued by those 
who try to make headway in the world. 
Some men begin by fighting. Others pursue 
error ' to earth/ Physical methods are some- 
times employed. Again, argument is called 
into play. But to know th$ truth you need 
neither struggle nor refute. The power of truth 



THE POWER OF TRUTH 229 

is calm, persuasive. To see it is to become 
reposeful, contented. Anxiety ceases, and a 
spirit of satisfaction takes its place. It is no 
longer necessary to create a furor, to assert, 
declare, affirm, as if one's beliefs could only 
be maintained by constant dogmatic repetition. 
The truth is the truth, and it supports itself. 
Hence the value of all methods of gaining 
knowledge by pushing through to the end. 
Knowledge is power. If you know the facts 
and comprehend the law you are secure. To 
know the truth about people and things is 
sometimes unpleasant. But in general it is 
well to know just how things are, then abide 
by the truth. 

In instances of seeming misfortune, when- 
ever we have forebodings or fear that great 
troubles are about to come upon us, if we can 
but learn the folly of all our anxieties, all is 
well. In many a case of illness, sorrow, and 
sin, if man could but see the truth of his real 
life, the truth would be the cure. There are 
many things which we cannot yet know, 
much that is hidden from us. But in general 



230 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

we know all that is essential. Hence the 
power of Jesus' Gospel. To see that the 
Kingdom of God is in truth an omnipresent 
system of goodness and love ; to learn that 
we are sons of God ; and that the eternal life 
of the spiritual world is ours now — this, if 
we really see its significance, is the great 
truth which sets all men free. 

Otherwise stated, the compensation for sin 
is the great truth made known by Jesus, 
namely, that man may so live as to be with- 
out sin. Had man not been born in ignor- 
ance and granted the freedom of personal 
experiment, he would have lacked the con- 
trast, the relational experience by which to 
understand the divine order, the righteous life. 

Man is not corrupt, he is not depraved, he 
would not willingly do wrong if he knew the 
full truth about life. It is half-truths that 
make mischief in the world. A half-truth is 
often more dangerous than a statement that 
is largely false. To know the complete Chris- 
tian truth is to know that there is full atone- 
ment for sin. The Father forgives until 



THE POWER OF TRUTH 231 

seventy thousand times seven, and guides the 
soul to liberty. Every one of our nine, or 
ninety, or nine hundred sins must be atoned 
for by deeds of righteousness. Jesus shows 
us how to live so as to make this complete 
atonement ; He does not live for us. 

To atone is to do that which is right, in 
contrast to a deed that was wrong. Where 
I once hated I ought now to love. It was 
wrong to hate because it was contrary to the 
divine order, contrary to the law of spiritual 
growth, contrary to the spirit of God. One 
person may indeed suffer for another, that 
the other may see the way, although the 
positive statement is that it is a deed of love, 
not a deed of sacrifice. One may even bear 
another's burden for a time. But that does 
not free the person from responsibility. 

A sudden atonement which should apply 
to all time was only conceivable when the 
law of evolution was not known. That doc- 
trine belongs with the old idea of creation 
out of nothing. The philosophy of evolution 
in every way enlarges the mission of Jesus. 



232 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

Jesus came in fulfilment of ages of evolution. 
His life would have little significance for us 
unless it revealed possibilities that are open 
to us. It is the law of evolution which makes 
those possibilities clear. 

As here considered, the consciousness 
attained by Jesus is typical of the universal 
ideal set before the human mind. If you 
would know reality you must be fully 
adjusted to it. If you would know the 
Christ you must endeavour to live as Jesus 
lived. If you would truly know the Father 
you must truly serve Him. There is no 
theory, no vicarious suffering which can 
bring to you a reality equivalent to the 
actual life. Hence it is necessary for each 
man to come to consciousness, take home 
the great truths which make for freedom, 
and begin to do for himself that which no 
man can do for him. 

If you would possess the realities of the 
great truth which Jesus revealed, begin by 
putting the factors of your life in their 
proper order. You have been looking for 






THE POWER OF TRUTH 233 

salvation to come from without. You have 
sought easy by-paths and ways of escape. 
You have expected to attain freedom without 
conquering self. You have depended upon 
other people, and relied on authority. Above 
all you have lacked the courage of conviction, 
you have not dared to make the full venture 
demanded of those who live by faith. But 
now you see that everything depends upon 
yourself. There is no reason to discredit the 
universe, there is nothing one would ask for 
that has not been done. All the guidance 
and power your soul cries out for are here. 
But the change must come from within, you 
must learn of experience its law and mean- 
ing, its divine environment, its God-inspired 
tendency. The simplest, humblest experience 
is as direct a road as any other, one time or 
place is as good as another; the essential is 
to begin to think, to observe the workings of 
the Spirit. For it is precisely through the 
Spirit's relationship to you that the signifi- 
cance of the great truth is to be seen. It 
is your judgment, your interpretation, your 
Q 



234 THE GREATEST TRUTH 

insight, your love that avails ; not what 
some one else has said. What others have 
said or done means more or less precisely 
according to what you are and what you see ; 
no one can see and know for you. It is you 
and the Father who must become one. It 
is the individual experience that is both 
the reality and the test. The thought is 
secondary, it is the life to which the thought 
refers that is fundamentally real. The creed 
is secondary, it is the conduct which follows 
that is significant. Have the faith, make the 
venture, pay the price, and you will win the 
gift. Do not expect to attain it without. 
But if you have learned this simple lesson 
the world is. yours. 



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